Naruto: Power of the Beast
by Jiraiya's Lost Student
Summary: What if Naruto had gained control over Kyuubi's chakra during the month of training for the finals of the Chunin exams? What if Jiraiya taught Naruto more than summoning? Watch as Naruto takes the whole world by storm with near unstoppable power and unmatched potential. But when the chips are down and its all or nothing against hidden threats and god like enemies, will he survive?
1. Chapter 1: Meeting the Beast

IM BACK WITH ANOTHER STORY!

Disclaimer: I dont own anything and carrots are tasty

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'Amazing... To think that he fought in the prelims two days ago and started water walking yesterday with half of his chakra sealed and his control down the tubes and yet when his chakra is normal, he can't even manage to summon a baby toad... Why is it that he can't expel enough chakra at once to summon, when he can make a THOUSAND CLONES!' Thought Jiraiya as he looked away from the beautiful young woman swimming in the lake next to the clearing that naruto was training in. 'Maybe it's the fox? When kyuubi was fully sealed away, he had better chakra control. Maybe Kyuubi is messing with his control somehow.'

"Gahh! Another tadpole! What am I doing wrong?" questioned Naruto to himself, unaware that Jiraiya was in the tree behind him.

'Maybe Naruto should meet the fox? Mito once said that she would visit the fox every so often, and Kushina got to the point that she could use the foxes pure chakra...' Kushina was known as the Red Death because of her hair, and when she was ever in a pinch, she would start to radiate red chakra. Only Minato, Jiraiya and Old man Sarutobi knew that it was actually the fox and not some genjutsu or fire nature chakra. 'How did those two manage to do it I wonder? Could it be that they took the foxes power? Oh well, here goes nothing. Even if it doesn't work, i'll just teach him the trick to shadow clone training'

"Naruto, what would you say if I told you there was a way you could summon the toad boss?" asked Jiraiya as he looked down on Naruto from a tree... That he was using to peek on girls...

"I would do it! I can't let that Teme stay better than me!" shouted an excited, yet very tired Naruto. It was a fact that naruto hated Sasuke, not because of the special training he got from Kakashi, or even that fact that he was admired, but for the fact that Sasuke had everything handed to him, and never had to actually work for anything.

"Good, follow me." stated Jiraiya as he lept from the tree and started jogging towards the far end of the training area, Naruto close behind, but having to sprint to keep up with the shockingly fast older man.

After only a few minutes of running, which turned out to be about two miles, much to Naruto's shock, they arrived at a rather deep canyon.

Naruto was panting and cursing at Jiraiya for running so fast, while Jiraiya simply summoned a small grey toad. "Gamata, can you inform Sensei that me and Naruto will be training in Foster Canyon for the remainder of the month, and ask him to send the ANBU that guards Naruto?"

The toad simply nodded and proofed off to the Hokage's office, to deliver his message.

"Naruto, what did you feel when you used the Fox's chakra?" questioned Jiraiya

Naruto's eyes widened in shock "Um, well... When I saw Sasuke go down, I got really angry, but when I was trying to save Sasuke and Sakura from snake face... I felt... I don't know... It was weird, like I wasn't fighting for myself, like I was fighting for something more..."

"Naruto. We're going to the bottom of this canyon, and you're going to talk to the fox." stated Jiraiya

"Why would I? He's made my life hell! The only thing he's good for is when I get hurt, and it's usually his fault anyway!" stated Naruto loudly

"Well, would you rather switch places? That demon in your gut has probably been staring at the same thing for the last seventy years? You don't know this, but that fox has been sealed three times now, and the only time it's been out, it was immediately attacked. Put yourself in that position." stated Jiraiya as if that explained everything, though at most it raised further questions.

"What! I thought I was the only one to ever carry this stupid thing!" shouted naruto.

"Naruto... You're not the only person in the world that has a demon sealed inside of them." stated Jiraiya

"I-I'm not?" questioned naruto

"No... In fact it's so common that there's a name for them. Jinchuuriki, the power of human sacrifice, you've met one of them. Gaara of the desert is a Jinchuuriki." stated Jiraiya, a sad smile on his face.

"But he's the son of the Kazekage! Why would he have a demon sealed inside of him?" questioned Naruto

"Most Jinchuuriki are related to Kages or important people. In Kumo, The container of the eight tails is a man by the name of Killer Bee, the Raikage's brother. There is another container in Kumo, a blond woman, I don't know her name or what beast she holds... I'll be honest, the only reason I even know about her is because she caught me peeping." stated Jiraiya a stupid perverted grin on his face.

"Guessing she beat the shit out of you?" laughed naruto.

"Actually, she asked me to sign her book and not use her in any of my books." stated Jiraiya

"What? There's actually a girl out there that reads your books?" asked Naruto

"Shut up Gaki! We're getting off topic. It's your duty as a Jinchuuriki to at the very least be able to use your curse." stated Jiraiya seriously.

"I still don't want to. If its not my own power, then I don't want to have it." stated Naruto adamantly.

"Naruto, by that logic, you wouldn't use a Kunai or a sword or shuriken or a senbon." stated Jiraiya

"Huh? Why do you say that?" asked a confused Naruto

"It's simple. That demon sealed in your gut is nothing but a tool. If used wrong it can kill you, of you don't learn to use it, it can kill you and everyone around you, and it's one of the best trump cards out there." Seeing Naruto's confusion, Jiraiya slapped his forehead and elaborated "Your demon can HEAL you. If you learn to control its chakra, you could take anything but a killing blow and keep fighting. Imagine that, a hokage that can take any blow in stride and always come through in the end."

'Good lord, this kid is more stubborn than his old man AND his mother... Minato, Kushina, what do I do to make your son understand?' thought Jiraiya

"So... It's just a tool? Like a kunai or a sword?" questioned Naruto 'I could always just not use it unless I really need it...'

'Well... That was easy... I'll have to  
Remember to just relate everything to him being hokage from now on...' thought Jiraiya "Yes, although a much more robust and powerful tool. And just like any weapon, you have to Learn to use it, and unlike other weapons, you have will have to EARN the right to use this tool."

"So... How do I go about doing this?" asked Naruto.

"When I first met killer Bee, he said he had a mental connection with his beast. Also, it was said that Yagura, the fourth Mizukage, had such control over his beast that he could fully transform into it." stated Jiraiya, more to himself than anything "I guess that you might be able to travel into the seal and speak to him, at the very least, you could ask him to use his chakra when ever you wanted."

"And how do I do that?" asked Naruto

"Like this!" shouted Jiraiya as he pushed Naruto over the edge of the massive canyon. Jiraiya then followed after his blond student, ready to catch him when he finally entered the seal... Or at least before he hit the ground.

Meanwhile, naruto was freaking out. "God Damn it! How the hell is this suppose to help me?" questioned Naruto as he felt a pull in the back of his mind and blacked out. He was then promptly caught by Jiraiya, and taken to the bottom of the canyon.

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-Mindscape-

"Where am I? How the hell did I get in a sewer?" asked Naruto as he looked around his surroundings, seeing that one end of the sewer was bright and the other was dark, he decided to go towards the light. "I swear to god Pervy sage, if I'm dead I'm going to haunt you for the rest of your life!"

**"I can help with that"** came a deep booming voice from where naruto was heading **"But first, I believe we have much to discuss"**

Naruto walked up in front of a large gate, easily 50 feet tall. Behind the gate, two huge blood red eyes and orange ears were visible. "Are you Kyuubi?"

**"No, I'm the Easter bunny... No shit I'm kyuubi! Now what is it you want? I hate talking to humans, so make it quick before I choose to eat you!**"

"My sensei sent me here so that I could make a connection with you and maybe request the use of some of your chakra. But I have another reason for wanting to speak to you." stated Naruto with confidants and resolve that honestly shocked the chakra entity.

**"Hahahaha, And what exactly do you want to know? Depending on the questions, I MAY let you use some of my chakra."**

"Well I have a couple of questions. I guess my first is, why does my mind look like a sewer, the second is why did you attack the village the night I was born and the third, who were your other hosts and four... Outside of letting you go, what can I do to make you more comfortable while you're here?"

**"... I don't know why your mind is a sewer, maybe it's because of your mindset. I was being controlled when I attacked the village, I refuse to go into any more detail than that. My first host was the man who first sealed me, Hashirama's, wife. I believe her name was Mito. The second was a woman named Kushina. Reminds me a lot of you, fiery temper, skilled, wanted to be hokage. Then there's you. Now if you truly want to make my life inside of this seal better, you could give me access to your senses, I'm tired of living closed off from the world, you could also change the size of this cage, it may seem big to you, though I can barely move in this place."** stated a much calmer and even friendlier sounding Kyuubi.

"How would I do that?" Asked Naruto, his curiosity skyrocketed by the suddenly not so terrifying Kyuubi

**"It's your mind kit. If I knew I would tell you, my best guess is that if you concentrate hard enough, you can move these things at your will."**

Naruto closed his eyes and barely a second later, a pulse ripped through his mindscape, shredding everything in its path. Then a second pulse went through his mindscape, turning it into one giant cave with about a dozen doors on both sides and a small path in the back of the cave with a large blinking exit sign above it. Then, Kyuubi''s cage expanded in all directions, forming a large grassy valley, surrounded on all sides by mountains and of course the large gate that made up the seal.

Kyuubi was shocked, not only was it beautiful, it was also brilliant. With mountains on all sides, it didn't truly feel like he was trapped any more, the grass felt great on his paws, there was a massive tree in the back that looked like it would be great for napping under, and finally, because of the drop-off, naruto and kyuubi now stood eye to eye. That's when kyuubi felt it. He could feel everything going on around naruto, the perverted one setting up camp, a small fox was currently staring at naruto from afar, somewhere, a blond with large breast was losing a alot of money, a Snake was cutting open an orange, a scarecrow was creating a lot of lightning and a bowl cut man was somehow doing pushups with his chin.

"Wow. That was easier than I thought." stated Naruto

**"You have proven yourself to me Kit. I'm going to give you a gift, but first, I must tell you of my origins."**

"Kit?" questioned Naruto

**"You've just done more for me than any human since the man that created me. You see, all Nine Bijuu are all originally from one being. An ever powerful beast that created the oceans and continents. It was the Juubi. It had no emotions, no thoughts, it was just a giant mass of immeasurable energy. That is until it was sealed into a single man. On the mans death bed, he released the Juubi, separated it's power from its body and used it to create the nine bijuu. Each of us have a power from the great beast. Mine is its ability to harness natural energy and convert it to my own, so I can never run out. My last container earned enough of my respect to use just under a tail of my power. You on the other hand have earned everything... I'm giving you full, unrestricted control of all of my powers. And my true name Kit, Is Kurama."**

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**(A**ny ideas you wanna throw by me, at any point in this story are welcome!)

(read, review, and read my other stories! there getting lonely)


	2. Chapter 2: Gifts

Disclaimer: im not responsible for any damage that kushina delivers.

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"What?" asked Naruto with an unreadable expression.

**"I'm going to give you full control of my powers, my chakra, my senses, hell, even my techniques, though you'll have to modify them..."** trailed of Kurama as it sat in the middle of the cage, pondering how a tiny boy would be able to perform his two best attacks.

"R-Really? Why?" asked Naruto, he had never really been given anything, other than his goggles and his wallet.

**"Because kit, you've done more for me than almost anyone else. You earned my respect, when you made my life easier, even though you could have made it even worse. Plus it's pointless having basically unlimited Chakra go to waste."** stated Kurama.

"What about that other stuff? You said all your powers and senses as well." questioned Naruto

**"For the love of Kami you ask a lot of questions. At least this way I won't have to explain as much later. Other than pure chakra, each tailed beast got a power, or in my case, several. The first I already told you about, being able to gather natural energy, though it's only when I don't move. The second, as a mass of rage and hatred myself, i can sense Negative emotions, as well as any chakra producing beings, and in some cases, even what their intentions are based on their chakra flow. The third, is rapid regeneration, my chakra, contrary to what you may think, is a multiplier. Anything exposed to my chakra kicks into overdrive. Say you get a huge gash on your arm, send my chakra to it, and it will heal several times faster. You can also use it on muscles to increase your power and speed, and even on your eyes, brain and nervous system, so that you can reacted much faster."** stated Kyuubi.

"That's so cool! Thank you lord Kurama!" yelled Naruto in glee.

**"Hold up kit, don't call me lord, it irritates me. Second, you will have to work for it. As you will have to separate my chakra from me."** stated Kurama.

"Huh? Why do I have to do that ? Wouldn't that hurt you?" questioned naruto

**"Because, my rage and malice are intertwined with my chakra. If you break that connection, you can use the full does of my chakra without losing it like you did on the bridge."** stated Kurama **"Though I doubt you will be able to use a full does of the bat. Your going to need chakra control exercise to manipulate the flow of my chakra and regulate it, otherwise it will throw off everything and leave you extremely vulnerable."**

"Ok, that makes sense, but how do I do it?" asked Naruto

**"Pull the seal off the gate, connect with my chakra and pull it out of me.**" stated Kurama

"Hold the hell up! I have to remove my seal? You would just escape then!" stated Naruto.

**"No, the seal on the gate is the barrer seal that keeps me from attacking you. The full seal is probably hidden somewhere that neither of us are aware exists. If you don't believe me, look at the seal on the door. Does it look anything like the one on your gut?"** questioned Kurama.

Naruto drew a blank as he looked at the seal on the cage. Kurama was right, where the one on his gut was a spiral, this one was a kanji for "barrier". "So I just pull this off and then I take your chakra?"

**"More or less"**

"Well, here it goes" stated Naruto as he reached up and pulled the seal off the cage.

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-Outside world-

"You requested me lord Jiraiya?" questioned a cat masked ANBU, both men standing at the bottom of Foster canyon, next to the large stream that ran down the middle.

"Tenzo, there's no need to be so formal with me. If I didn't care when I found you in Orochimaru's lab, I don't care now." stated Jiraiya

"Fine, you requested me, Jiraiya?" questioned Tenzo as he took his mask off, revealing a brown haired man with coal black eyes and a helmet style forehead protector.

"Yes, I'm going to be helping Naruto in using Kyuubi's chakra, and I want you here incase something goes wrong." stated Jiraiya

"B-But he's only twelve! Surely he can't be ready yet! What about the fox's influence?" questioned Tenzo

"Well one, that's why your here, two, he's used it before, and three, we both know that he is not your standard twelve year old." stated Jiraiya.

"So... When do we being? And what will we be doing?" questioned Tenzo

"Well... If naruto can obtain a portion of Kyuubi's chakra, we will be training in that. On top of that, we're going to use shadow clones to begin fixing the flaws in his taijutsu, try and teach him some genjutsu, or at least how to break them, and I'll start teaching him the Rasengan." listed off Jiraiya

"You can do that with shadow clones? I thought they only transferred memory?" stated Tenzo

"Ah, but muscle memory is just that, memory. I'm still not sure how I should go about teaching him taijutsu though." stated Jiraiya

"What do you mean? He seems perfect for lord Yondaime's Flash Fist, all we would have to do is bring his speed up?" stated Tenzo, already exited to train the boy he had watched over as an infant.

"No. He's like me, to unpredictable to have a set taijutsu style, and his in battle intelligence when coming up with plans, from what Kakashi told me and from what I saw at the preliminaries, I believe is even greater than Itachis. I'm thinking of just having him learn a bunch of strikes, blocks, dodges, counters and maybe even counter counters if we have time. He can peice together a working combo in a fight." stated Jiraiya

Tenzo was stunned, he was a few years older than Itachi and remembers clearly just how intelligent the man was when he was partnered with him under Kakashi. To hear that a genin, even one with Narutos parentage, was even greater than the prodigy, or as many knew him, slaughterer of the Uchiha, was mind blowing. "Kakashi Senpai said that?"

"No, but from the report that was written, in less than two seconds, Naruto came up with a plan that forced Zabuza Momochi to release Kakashi when he got caught in a water prison. I've also watched the tape from his match in the chunin exams when he beat the Inuzuka with a fart and an improvised Taijutsu move he saw once from another genin." stated Jiraiya with a smirk

"Well we can both teach him the strikes and blocks to the clones as they learn chakra control, how to break genjutsu and the beginning of the Rasengan."

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-Unknown-

"Minato kun, he release the barrier... Which one of us should go?" asked Kushina with tears in her eyes, knowing that he would say himself, and it would be the last time she ever saw him.

"Neither of us will go." stated Minato calmly as he watched his son struggle with all his might to pull the chakra from the beast, and surprisingly, was almost an eighth the way done. He had to admit, this was going way faster than he expected.

"Idiot! Why wouldn't one of us go? He needs help!" stated Kushina angrily.

"He's fine dear. Look, the kyuubi is letting him take it's chakra. Why go now when he doesn't need us and risk not being there when he truly does?" questioned Minato.

Kushina knew her husband was right, and that her little Naruto didn't need them at the moment, but god damnit, she wanted to be there for this! "You better hope to kami that he needs us more at some point, because if he doesn't, I'm going to kill you!"

"Sorry dear, I'm already dead, and so are you." stated Minato cheekily

"Fine, I'll just use my thousand years of painful death." stated Kushina

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-With Naruto and Kurama-

**"C'mon kit, you're almost halfway there..."** ground out the fox, who was beginning to feel the immense strain that when along with having your chakra forcibly removed.

Naruto said nothing as he continued to rip the chakra from the massive beast. With strained eyes he watched as the fox began to wither to skin and bones.

The fox apparently knew what the young blond was thinking as it ground out **"I'll recover, just whatever you do, do not stop! The backlash will kill us both. Now keep going, your almost there."**

Naruto grunted as he gave another big pull, but to no avail as he only succeeded in gaining another notch of chakra. "Come on god damnit!" shouted Naruto as he gave another big pull, this time succeeding in loosening Kyuubi's grasp on its chakra.

**"Your close kit! One more pull."**

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-outside world-

Tenzo and Jiraiya were standing under a dome that Tenzo had made as a shelter from the rain that had started just minutes ago. "Jiraiya, just how potent is Kyuubi's chakra? I've never actually needed to suppress it, so I'd like to have a heads up for when he uses it."

"We both know the feeling that chakra gives off. You were young at the time, but I'm sure you remember when it attacked." stated Jiraiya, Tenzo nodded. "Well, as powerful as it felt, just imagine it being twice as strong"

Tenzo stood shocked, he remembered it being unreal how strong the fox was, to be twice as strong as that? Suddenly, a burst of pure power emanated from the sleeping boy beside them. But as fast as it came, it was gone.

"Well, guess he succeeded. Wonder how much he got the kyuubi to cough up?"

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-Mindscape-

Naruto stood in awe of the giant floating orb of red chakra that now completely lit up the cave in a sunset like glow. Kurama wasn't much better, as it shakily stood and looked at its own chakra, which it somehow could still feel, hovered about ten feet in the air on the far right side of the cave, eight pillars surrounding it.

"Kurama? Are you ok?" questioned Naruto, seeing the fox roughly the size of a small house, and still skin and bones.

**"Yea kit... Just need to withdraw some energy from the nature around us. I'll be back to full ...in about a year, if you use a lot of my chakra, it will take longer, but I'll be able to replenish whatever ...you use in roughly a month."** Panted Kurama "**Now if you don't mind, I need to sleep to regain energy at a descent rate."**

"When can I start using your chakra?" asked Naruto

**"Whenever you want, though I wouldn't use any more that 2 percent flow at a time. It should just under three tails."**

"How is two percent three tails worth?" asked a confused Naruto

**"My tails are unlike the other bijuu. My first tail of my power is roughly a third of a percent, my second is two thirds of a percent. My third tail is roughly a percent and a third. It's exponential. Add the first three tails together and you get two and a third percent of my chakra. That's why I'm so much more powerful than the other Bijuu."**

Naruto watched as the downsized fox staggered over to the giant tree behind it and lay down in the shade. "Ok, ill let ya sleep. Seeya later Kurama!"

* * *

-Unknown-

"See Kushina chan? I told you that he would be fine." stated Minato

"I know, I just wish there was some way we could help him out, or at least congratulate him." stated a sad Kushina.

"If you wish, I can deliver a message to someone." stated a deathly sounding voice behind the duo. The spun to see a translucent figure in all white with long white hair.

"Shinigami sama! It's not what it looks like!" stated a startled Minato.

"Be calm Minato. I've known of you using the seal to watch your sons life. Do you forget that part of me is incorporated into it?" questioned the death god, Minato simply hung his head. "Now, as I see it, taking control of young Kyuubi's chakra is cause to celebrate. After all, he is the first human to do so in a very long time. What is the message you wish to deliver, and to whom?"

"Tell my little boy that we're proud of him and that-"

"No" Kushina was cut off by Minato

"What do you mean no? I will fuck you in the ass with my katana if you try to keep me from praising my baby!" shouted Kushina getting a sweatdrop from the Shinigami.

"He can't know about us yet. He's still at a troublesome stage in his life, I don't want his heritage going to his head." stated Minato, Kushina glared at him, but said nothing, understanding that Minato was right. "Shinigami sama. Could you possibly tell Hiruzen Sarutobi to give Naruto my old jacket and something from my wife? As well as the keys to our old apartment, after striping it of any pictures of me? He can leave everything of Kushina's "

"But of course. What would you like to give the boy?" questioned Shinigami as it looked at Kushina

"Everything in the apartment, as well as my specialty Konoha headband and my Uzu headband." stated Kushina with a small, but true smile.

"As well as a letter from me, if you would, Shinigami sama." stated a gruff, gravel like voice.

* * *

-Jiraiya and Tenzo-

"Good to see your awake Gaki. How much chakra did you get?" questioned Jiraiya "From that burst of power earlier, I'm guessing a lot?"

"A lot of what?"Suddenly, two people dropped down from the dome and walked closer, showing themselves to be Kakashi and Sasuke.

"What are you two doing here?" questioned Naruto in a less than friendly tone.

"Were training upstream of here and felt the surge of power. We decided to check it out." stated Kakashi lazily

"What was that power before?" demanded Sasuke, much to the displeasure of Naruto and Jiraiya.

"None of your business Teme." stated Naruto coldly.

"Well is it any of my business?" questioned Kakashi, getting a hateful glared from naruto, which seemed to confuse Kakashi.

"It would have been your business, had you not ditched me two days ago to train Sasuke. If I remember right, something about 'Sasuke needs my attention more than you do'?" questioned Naruto.

Jiraiya and Tennzo were shocked. Kakashi Hatake playing favorites? He was 'Team before self' how could he possibly play favorites.

"Kakashi Senpai, surely you didn't say that, did you?" questioned Tenzo

"Yes, I said that, and Sasuke DOES need my attention more that Naruto does. If Naruto loses, he will live, if Sasuke loses, there's no way he would make it out alive." stated Kakashi

"That's understandable. But how did you know Sasuke would be fighting Gaara? I mean, you've been giving him special training since we passed the bell test?" stated Naruto, his glare holding.

"I taught you all equally, it's not my fault that Sasuke is a faster learner than you." stated Kakashi.

"You taught me tree climbing. Other than that, all you've ever done is say I need better chakra control and then not tell me how to improve it!" stated Naruto as he started subconsciously drawing on Kyuubi's chakra, giving him a barely visible eerie glow.

"You should have done more tree climbing." stated Kakashi "That's more than enough for a genin."

"I find that hard to believe. Naruto learned water walking in less than two hours. If the Uchiha can learn faster than that, he would be a jonin by now." stated Jiraiya, growing angrier and angrier at the silver haired Jonin.

"Well, it took him almost 5 days to learn tree climbing." stated Kakashi

"The Gaki has more chakra than you and Tenzo combined. An academy student can learn tree climbing. Tell me, when you have Kage level reserves, what would be harder? Tree climbing, or water walking?" stated Jiraiya.

"Pff, like the Dobe has more chakra than me." stated Sasuke

"He does, in fact, he has as much as the Sandaime did when he trained me." stated Jiraiya "Now Kakashi, if you claim to have helped them the same, tell me, did you at least give him a scroll to help him train?"

"In fact I did. I got Ebisu to train him." stated Kakashi confidently. He may not of been able to train his student, but Gais old teammate was an elite instructor.

"Ebisu? Ebisu! You think that you helped him by getting Ebisu to train him? You were there when Ebisu openly stated that he hated Naruto!" shouted Jiraiya. "Leave Kakashi, before I kill you myself. You're a disgrace to your sensei and to your father."

Kakashi left without word, though it was easy to see he was shaking with rage. Sasuke followed after staring at Naruto for a second.

"Let's go see the old man. There's no way I'm teaching you anything with those two so close by." stated Jiraiya

* * *

-Meanwhile. With Sarutobi-

"What was that surge of Power? Surely naruto hasn't learned to harness Kyuubi's power already." questioned Hiruzen as he moved to grab his crystal ball.

"Indeed he did." came a deathly voice behind Sarutobi.

With speed he hadn't used in almost ten years, Hiruzen had backflipped out of his chair and stabbed a kunai into the back of the man that had somehow got passed all his ANBU, only to find that the stab hadn't hit anything.

"Now now Hiruzen, I'm not surprised you'd still be skilled, but was it really needed to attempt to kill me?" questioned the spectral figure.

"Sh-Shinigami!" stuttered the old Kage.

"Now now Hiruzen. Calm down, I'm not here to take you. Simply here to deliver a message from some people who have passed on." stated Shinigami. "I've temporarily put your ANBU to sleep. So do not worry."

"Who?" questioned Hiruzen.

"Minato and Kushina. As well as a young man who also died before his time. Anyway, Minato says that he wants you to give his son his jacket, but don't inform him that he is Minato's son. Kushina wants you to give naruto her old headbands, as well as their old apartment. After removing everything of Minatos that is." stated Shinigami as he dug into his robe and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. "Ah here it is, give this to Naruto, tell him it came in from wave yesterday. Farewell Hokage."

As the spectral image of the Shinigami faded, it was replaced by Jiraiya. As Sarutobi shook his head to clear its cobwebs, he noticed that both Tenzo and Naruto were standing by his sides.

"Old man? Are you alright?" questioned Naruto

"Yes... I believe I am." stated the old man slowly before looking to naruto "What is your progress so far?"

"Well I met Kurama, changed his cage, he let me have his chakra, I took it, and now hes sleeping. He said it would take a lot of work to use his chakra to the max, but I should be able to use about two percent of it." stated Naruto, as three jaws hit the floor.

"Hold the fuck up Gaki! Kurama? How did you change his cage? He let you HAVE his chakra? And two percent? How much is that?" questioned Jiraiya with wide eyes. In the corner the always quite Tenzo was simply unable to do anything as his brain had shut down.

"Uhh, in order.. Kyuubi's real name is Kurama. It was my mindscape so I just thought about it and it worked. He said that he liked me, and as thanks for making his life in my seal more bearable, he let me take his chakra." stated Naruto before he started scratching his head "He said something about each tail was exponential to the one before it, but I forgot the rest, hehe"

"That's... Amazing Naruto... Truly amazing." stated Sarutobi. "I have some things you should have. Your mother left me some things for you when I thought you ready. Also this came for you yesterday."

Naruto looked dumbstruck as he took the folder peice of paper. "M-My mother? But you said you didn't know who my parents were!"

"Gaki... Your mother was an s class kunoichi. We couldn't let anyone know you were her child, or you could be in even more trouble than you ended up in." stated Jiraiya seriously "She had many enemies in both Kumo and Kiri, as well as here in Konoha."

"Who was she?" asked Naruto in a quite voice.

"Kushina Uzumaki. Konoha's red death." stated Jiraiya, naruto just looked at Jiraiya in confusion.

Sarutobi walked over to his personal book case and pulled out a small package. "Now naruto. I'm sorry I waited till now to tell you of your mother. Her will that she left you is still intact, but will take about a week to gather. Until then, these are your mothers headbands."

"Headbands? Like more than one?" questioned Naruto

"Yes. You see, your mother was originally from the village of Uzushiogakure. It was destroyed near the end of the second great war, and she came here. The spiral headband is an Uzushio headband." stated Sarutobi, holding up a plain headband with a vortex on it. He then held up another headband, this one a Konoha headband, but the metal was black, and the leaf symbol was red. "This headband is given to the Commander of the ANBU. It's made of chakra conductive metal and the red symbol symbolized your mother, the red death."

"Can-Can I wear it?" asked Naruto

"Yes you may. We retired those style of headband from ANBU after your mother died, so there won't be any confusion." stated Sarutobi with a kind smile. "Now I believe I handed you a letter."

Naruto looked at the piece of paper he had dropped on the floor and began to read it aloud.

'Dear brat'

"Yea, it's for me."

'If you're reading this, then it's obvious that you survived and that I have not. I have decided that if you do indeed defeat Haku, as I'm sure you would be the one to do it, that you will continue my legacy and take my sword. Don't get all sappy on me, the only other choices I have is Hatake and that water punk, and I'm sure as hell not giving my sword to a monkey or a puddle. Anyway, you are now the wielder of my sword. Don't worry, in our hideout, about two miles or so north of the bridge, is instructions and materials needed for the upkeep. Don't fail my judgement!

Zabuza

P.S. fuck you!'

"He-He left me his sword..." muttered naruto before he passed out and collapsed to the floor, his mothers headbands in his left hand, the letter in his right.

"Must have been too much for him." stated Tenzo, who had finally recovered enough to form full sentences.

"I'd imagine that it would be. Finding out about your mother and being left the sword of Zabuza Momochi... I'd probably pass out too." stated Jiraiya, who had been reading over the blonde's shoulder. "Listen sensei. I'm gonna take Naruto to get that sword and train him along the way. I request that you assign Tenzo to me so that he can help with Naruto, training in Kyuubi's chakra."

"Approved. While you're there perhaps you could improve relations." stated Sarutobi as he wrote up an order for a b rank retrieval mission.

"That won't be a problem. We can get there in a day and spend three weeks training." stated Jiraiya, more to himself that anything.

"Why would you be training there? Would it not be more beneficial to train here?" questioned the old man

Surprisingly, it was Naruto who answered. "Kurama's chakra is too powerful. The only safe place to train is in foster canyon, and the Temes are training there. It wouldn't do me any good for Sasuke or Hatake to see anything I might learn."

"Why would you say that Naruto? Kakashi is your sensei and Sasuke your teammate?" questioned Sarutobi. He had heard that team 7 was close and that they had perfect teamwork?

It was Jiraiya that filled in the blanks. "I believe Kakashi is favoring Sasuke heavily. As you know, I've read every team progress report I could on the Gaki, and in everyone it shows both the Gaki and his female teammate improve roughly the same and the Uchiha improving in leaps and bounds."

"Well, Sasuke is a genius. After all, he was rookie of the year-" stated Sarutobi

"I watched Naruto learn water walking in under an hour." interrupted Jiraiya "Anyone who can learn water walking in an hour, and has reserves as big as you did thirty years ago, should have no problem learning anything with a capable instructor."

Sarutobis four head crinkled at the thought of that 'Even Tsunade had not learned Water walking that fast. And he does indeed have monstrous reserves...' "Perhaps Kakashi has been playing favorites... But has he done anything detrimental to either student?"

"He left me to train by myself for the finals and when I confronted him about it, he brought me that closet pervert that says he's training Konohamaru." stated Naruto a small amount of killing intent radiating off of the blonde.

"From this moment forth, Naruto, you are no longer part of team 7. For now, I will have an investigation into Kakashi's behavior and teachings. That will tell us just how much he has played favorites." stated Sarutobi in an angered voice. "For now, you three will go to wave, train Naruto and be back here the day before the finals."

"Umm, jiji? If I'm not on team 7 anymore, who is my sensei?" questioned Naruto

"Jiraiya will be. And when he isn't in the village, Tenzo will be. Seeing as your getting a sword, he can teach you the basics. I will work on getting a suitable kenjutsu teacher for you after the chunin exams." Stated Sarutobi.

"Thank you jiji!" smiled Naruto

"It's not a problem Naruto. After all, I can't have the man that's going to replace me being held back, now can I?" smiled the old man, who once again got up and walked over to the cabinet to the right of the door and pulled out a scroll that had a yellow casing over it. "The man that this belonged to would be proud of you. He would want you to have this. Please wait until your on your way to wave to open it"

"Is that all old man?" questioned Jiraiya as he watched the blonde examine the scroll for a second before shrugging and placing it in his pocket. He watched as his old sensei nodded. "Alright, then we're off. See you in a month sensei."

* * *

-At the gate.-

"Ok, its already getting late, so to get there as fast as possible, we're going to take a toad. So go ahead and summon one." stated Jiraiya

"Umm, Pervy sage? I can't, remember?" stated Naruto

"Just humor me, put as much in as you do for say, one hundred clones." stated Jiraiya.

"Alright, here it goes... Summoning Jutsu!" a huge cloud of smoke enveloped the trio as the rocketed into the air.

"Hello Jiraiya. Might I ask what you summoned me for?" asked the large scarlet red frog.

"It wasn't me Gamaken. It was young Naruto here." stated Jiraiya.

"I see. Then what can I assist you with Naruto?"

"Umm, can you bring us to the bridge that connects fire country to wave country?" asked Naruto

"There's a bridge now? Hmm. I can try. Please hold on tight, I'm rather clumsy." stated Gamaken as he took off with a giant leap, forcing Naruto to roll down his back before he caught himself on the the large shield.

"Huh, Gaki recovered much faster than his father did the first time he road Gamabunta."

* * *

-Unknown-

"He's growing up so fast!" cried Kushina as she held onto Minato.

"Kushina... I wouldn't mind this normally, but..." stated Minato

"I've seen worse... Though I never would have thought that the red death and Yellow flash would be so emotional." stated the gruff voice beside the couple. "Though I guess that explains the orange..."

"This coming from the young man that killed his entire class because they bullied the girl you loved?" asked Kushina with a sly smile

"I have no idea what you're talking about" stated Zabuza with a faint blush on his face

"Oh? So you wouldn't mind if say, our little Naruto just so happened to charm a certain redhead..." stated Kushina in a sing song voice

Minato watched as the young swordsman in front tense slightly. With a smirk he said "Hmm, perhaps Shinigami sama would allow another message? I'm sure that ANY woman would love to meet the son of a Kage and an ANBU commander..."

"Mhmm, and with his father's good looks and huge... Assets..." added Kushina

"And not to mention he has the ability to change people for the better..." added Minato.

"Enough! Just so you all know, If ANYONE was to earn her heart... I would want it to be the man who helped me to die a human, when I had spent my life as a demon." stated Zabuza, a peaceful smile reached his eyes, suddenly, Minato saw an image of Kakashi.

"Tell me Zabuza, what exactly did my son do to gain your respect. Even when I was alive it was known that you respected almost no one. The only thing we saw was Naruto breaking some weird mirror and defeating a hunter Nin." states Minato

Kushina, seeing his questioning look, decided to explain "We only saw things happen in Naruto's seal and when He uses Kyuubi's chakra. Though now that Shinigami gave us this viewing window, we can see everything."

"Well. I guess we got the time. I gotta start at the beginning for you to understand."

* * *

-Great Naruto Bridge, Zabuza entrance.-

"This Bridge is named after the man that saved Wave not only from a tyrant, but also, from itself. We name this bride In honor of Naruto Uzumaki, one of the three Heros of Wave." read of Tenzo before shifting to another golden plaque "This entrance on the Great Naruto Bridge is named after the Demon of the Hidden Mist, Zabuza Momochi, who at the cost of his own life, ended Gatos reign."

Jiraiya whistles "Impressive. This bridge is very impressive. It's to bad they named it after the brat."

When Naruto hadn't retorted, Jiraiya and Tenzo looked over to the young man, only to see him standing before Zabuza's plaque. 'Its because of you and Haku that I'm as strong as I am today. I swear on my life that I will become even stronger and keep your memories and dreams alive.'

**I'll be right there with you kit.'**

'Thank you Kurama.' thought Naruto 'Glad to see your up.'

"Naruto? Gaki? You aright?" questioned Jiraiya, a worried tone carried his voice.

"Yea... Better than ever."

* * *

(You Know the drill, read and review, give sugestions, tell me how i suck.)

(Rixxell Stryfe, ill be waiting)

(Read my other stories as well, there are 4 others)


	3. Chapter 3: Nee Chan!

Disclaimer: I love you all!

* * *

"You two have given me more than anyone else ever has... You gave me beliefs to fall back on, the determination to become strong enough to protect all those precious to me... And now Zabuza, you give me your second most prized possession." stated Naruto as he stared down at the graves that held Haku and Zabuza. Jiraiya and Tenzo were in town picking up some supplies, and had left him alone. He grabbed his forehead protector and pulled it off, replacing it with his mothers ANBU commander forehead protector, and turned it to the side, exactly like Zabuza had. "I promise to you both that I will use everything you've given me to help those in need and protect everyone precious to me."

Naruto grabbed the hilt of the sword and with all his strength, he pulled it from the ground. He then ran his palm across the blade, causing blood to cover the blade. "And I swear on my blood and my pain that I will make you two, my mother, the Old man, and everyone else that's ever helped me or have been on my side proud."

"Very touching, for a thief, you Speak well." Naruto spun around to see a stunning redheaded woman in a blue dress and mesh. He had barely sensed her approach, as he wasn't channeling any kyuubi chakra. But one this was certain. She had a lot of chakra. And she looked pissed "Now return that sword to its rightful place, before I melt you!"

"I don't know who you are lady, but I will never give up this sword!" stated Naruto fiercely as he started drawing Kurama's chakra, just enough to remain unseen. Naruto was amazed how even at low levels, the giant blade felt no heavier than the katana that Tenzo was having him train with on the walk across the bridge.

"Listen punk, I will not tell you again, put that sword back in its rightful place or I will kill you." stated the redhead in a rage filled voice.

"I don't know what your problem is, but this sword is in its rightful place." stated Naruto as he took the best defensive stance he could muster.

"That sword belongs with Zabuza!" she shouted as she rushed him, drawing her fist back, only to see him start to glow gold and blur behind her. 'Fast! Low jonin level.'

Naruto tried to punch her from behind, only for her to spin around and grab his fist,using his own momentum to throw him like a rag doll over her shoulder. As Naruto righted in himself, he felt all the air leave his lungs, a fist planted in his gut.

'Kurama! I need as much chakra flow as I can handle!'

The only response was naruto glowing brighter and feeling the pain from the punch lesson. As naruto approached a tree, he stabbed the blade into the ground, halting his involuntary flight. Naruto's chakra enhanced eyes and brain picked up another blur heading towards him from his right, on instinct, he pulled the blade from the ground and blocked the strike, something he had seen Zabuza do when first fighting Kakashi.

Mei was in shock, the brat had block her punch, which considering she was the second strongest woman in the world, right behind Tsunade, was a feat in itself. What shocked her the most, was with his headband sideways, his demon like shroud, and the way he blocked with the flat of the sword, the brat looked exactly like Zabuza.

"Why! Why are you dishonoring him! You took his sword, his style and even his signature genjutsu!" yelled Mei in a fit of rage.

"He left me his sword! The headband thing is my way of HONORING him, and I have no idea what you mean, I'm not using any genjutsu." stated Naruto as he hefted the large sword up and placed it on his shoulder, making Mei once again see a resemblance to Zabuza.

"He would never leave that sword to you!"

* * *

-With Tenzo and Jiraiya-

Tenzo and Jiraiya were walking through the street, looking for a good tailor so that they could get naruto a good set of clothes to train in, when they stumbled across a store that caught their eye. It was a ninja supply store. Both walked in and were surprised to see it was fully stocked with all manor of shinobi wear and gear.

"Welcome to my store, judging from you headbands, I assume you are Konoha ninja?" asked the large gray haired older man behind the counter.

"That we are. We were looking for some clothes for our student when we stumbled upon your store. Mind telling us what a village like this needs a shinobi supply store for?" asked Jiraiya as he looked at some of the clothes on the racks, seeing they were all high quality.

"Ever since Gato was killed, the civilians have been training to protect themselves." stated the man behind the counter "So what brings you to wave? I can't believe that you would come all the way here just to buy a few supply's from little old me."

"Actually, our student is training for the chunin exam finals. We're here because it's out of the way and we have some things we don't want his competition to know about him." stated Tenzo, inspecting a turtleneck Kevlar mesh undershirt.

"Why come to wave though? I only know of four ninja from Konoha that have ever been here." stated the older man before his eye lit up. "Is your student Naruto Uzumaki?"

* * *

-With Naruto-

"Zabuza... He really did leave his sword to, you didn't he?" questioned Mei as she reread the letter for what had to have been the twentieth time.

"Yea, he also left me some other stuff as well." stated Naruto as he nurse his rib cage, where mei had landed a brutal kick. Naruto laid down on the ground and sighed "At least I'm improving... Last time I fought a jonin I almost died"

"How did you know I'm a jonin?" asked Mei, her interest in the young genin had skyrocketed over the last ten minutes.

"Because, even though my taijutsu and kenjutsu suck, I can still move at jonin level speeds and I'm strong enough to swing around this sword." stated Naruto with a pat on the sword in his lap. "If you weren't a jonin, you wouldn't have been able to keep up, and seeing as you were blowing me out of the water, I can only assume that your high jonin in skill."

"Very deductive of you Naruto kun. But can I ask, how are you able to move like that?" questioned Mei

"Umm, I use chakra on every muscle, my eyes, brain and Nervous system to make me faster stronger and quicker."Stated Naruto

"Hmm, sounds like A's lightning armor..." stated Mei to herself, silently impressed that a genin had recreated the Raikage's personal Jutsu.

"Huh? Who's A? And what's lightning armor?"

"He's the Raikage. He uses a Jutsu that's exactly like that golden cloak of yours, except he uses his masterful control over lightning." stated Mei "Naruto kun... Did you mean everything you said about becoming strong?"

"Yes. I will become strong so that I can protect everyone I care about." stated Naruto with resolve that made Mei once again see Zabuza.

"Well then, I guess you could use a few Jutsu to help out." stated Mei with a smile as she stood up and fished a scroll out of the small pouch on her lower back. "I'm sure these will help, but for now, I must get back to Mist. I hope to see you again Naruto Kun."

Naruto looked at the scroll and saw several high ranking water Jutsu on it. "That you Mei nee chan!" shouted Naruto as he charged and hugged her.

"Just keep Zabuza alive in memory and in your heart." stated Mei with a smile. She then disappeared in a swirl of water.

"Huh, I hope that's in this scroll too, that was awesome!" stated Naruto as he walked back towards the village to meet up with Yamato and Jiraiya. "Wonder how the training is going to go?"

* * *

-Forty five minutes later-

"Ok Brat, let's get to work. During this month, we're going to be working on your taijutsu, ninjutsu, kenjutsu, fuinjutsu and of course, using your new chakra." stated Jiraiya, showing his serious side.

"What's fuinjutsu? And how the hell are we going to do all of that in a month?" questioned Naruto

"Fuinjutsu is the art, and I do mean art, of seals. Unlike ninjutsu or genjutsu or almost every other kind of Jutsu, fuinjutsu can do almost anything. Most shinobi see fuinjutsu as pointless because they fail to see the in fight capabilities." stated Jiraiya

"What are the in fight capabilities? You mean like being able to attack and defend?" asked Naruto, curious as to how useful it could be.

"There are a lot of things that can be useful in a fight, just an example, the Yondaime's signature Jutsu, the Hiraishin, is one hundred percent fuinjutsu. Also, you can seal weapons away and surprise your opponent by pulling a sword or an explosive tag out of nowhere." stated Jiraiya.

"That's so cool! So I could like, seal my sword on my palm, and deploy it whenever I wanted?" questioned Naruto

"Exactly, you could even seal kunai into the sword, and have them launch out when you swing the sword." stayed Jiraiya with a smile

"That's awesome!" shouted naruto in glee "I want to learn fuinjutsu!"

"That's great naruto, but first, we must get your other skills up to a higher level in a hurry. So we're going to be using my favorite training method... Kage bushin no Jutsu!" suddenly, there were two Jiraiya's "Ok kid, I want you to make a clone and have it come with me and you spar with Tenzo."

* * *

-Otogakure-

"Luck is on our side." stated Orochimaru as he looked over a spy report.

"Why is that?" inquired Kabuto

"Because my idiot of an ex teammate has taken that talentless Uzumaki away from the village for the month to train, leaving Konoha with its spy network for the whole month." stated Orochimaru in glee.

"I don't see the difference, I mean, they never would have known anyway..." stated Kabuto

"Once again, you're not seeing the bigger picture Kabuto kun. If we don't have to worry about the spy network, then we don't have to conceal our movements as much. Which means that I no longer have to use that fool as a mask any longer." stated Orochimaru "And the best part is, he's still under my Jutsu. So no matter what, he will follow the plan."

* * *

-Konoha-

The third hokage frowned deeply as he looked over the team 7 reports, he was shocked, but not for the reason he would have thought.

It seemed that, incredibly, until the end of the second round of the chunin exam, Kakashi had been a fair, although extremely ineffective, sensei. In fact, the one that grew the least under him was Sasuke, who had been a prodigy in the academy, and had all but stopped growing until the fated A rank mission to wave when he had unlocked his sharingan. Though it seemed to most that Sasuke was growing by leaps and bounds, it was just a trick of the mind, as Sasuke had been so far ahead of everyone else, that even the slightest increase in skill seemed to be a huge step.

That was the problem though. Even Minato and Itachi were never this far ahead of the class they graduated with. Though they both had graduated early, they were still roughly mid genin when they graduated. Hell even Kakashi himself was only mid genin level when he graduated. Yet Sasuke seemed to have already been High genin, bordering on chunin when he graduated. Even more concerning, when naruto had graduated, his scores were the lowest in the academy's history, yet within a day of his third failure, he learned a b rank Jutsu and defeated a rather skilled chunin in hand to hand combat with it.

Why was nothing coming out of the academy making sense? He could understand that Sasuke would be skilled, but if he was already near chunin level at the time of graduation. Why had he not known about it? And what about Naruto? He was obviously held back at the academy, mizuki had admitted to that himself, but how much had he truly been held back? In every definition of the term, Naruto was a prodigy, even more so than his father was. And yet he came out of the academy as the dead last? Hell, he failed three times! Not to mention the young Haruno. She's the daughter two fairly skilled, retired shinobi. She came out of the academy a well rounded, incredibly intelligent young woman. But her team reports showed that she had done next to nothing on their missions, and when she trained she did the bare minimum of work.

"Get me Ibiki, Anko, Hayate and Genma, now!" commanded Sarutobi as he felt two ANBU leave to gather the people he requested. 'I will get to the bottom of this. Then I will handle Kakashi's shortcomings as a sensei.'

* * *

-Three weeks later.-

"Ok naruto, let's spar again, and let's see how far you've come." stated Tenzo, seeing naruto nod he added the stipulations "Just your skills. The kyuubi chakra is a trump card, you should not become reliant on it."

Naruto nodded and shot forward at high genin speed, throwing a punch at the ANBUs face, only for Tenzo to catch it and throw naruto over his shoulder. However, naruto used the throw to his advantage by unsealing his sword from his palm, slicing at tenzos back.

Jiraiya watched his godson use his outstanding in fight intelligence to force an ANBU member onto the defensive. "Outstanding. Even though he only has high genin speed and low chunin strength, he still is able to outmaneuver a seasoned ANBU and even use what most would consider a horrible position to his own advantage... He really is your son Minato."

"Very good naruto. You have high genin speed and are easily low chunin in strength with how you use that sword. Your taijutsu is good, but you still need more experience, I'd say it's also high genin. Now let's see some ninjutsu." stated Tenzo as he once again got into a defensive stance.

"I'll take it from here Tenzo. No offense, but the Gakis reserves are just as big as mine, not to mention we've drilled so much chakra control into his head that he probably has low chunin level chakra control." stated Jiraiya as he took tenzos place in front of naruto. "Ok Gaki, show me what you got!"

"Water style! Water dragon Jutsu!" shouted Naruto as he drew water from the air and launched the dragon at Jiraiya, who was shocked to see naruto use B rank Jutsu of the bat, especially one that he hadn't taught him. Before he even had a chance to put up a defense, he heard another yell "Water style! Great collision wave Jutsu!"

"Earth style! Earth bunker!" shouted Jiraiya as he slammed his palms into the ground, creating a dome over himself to shield him from the water "Let's see you beat this Gaki! Earth style! Earth bullet dragon!"

Narutos eyes widened as he flew threw hand seals. "Earth style! Earth wall Jutsu!"

A ten foot tall, ten foot wide and two feet thick wall of earth sprang up in front of Naruto absorbing the impact of the bullet dragon as it slammed into it. As it fell, Jiraiya saw Naruto, kneeling behind the giant mound of mud that made of their combined Jutsu, panting heavily.

"Man... Two B rank... Jutsu and a C... Rank and I'm already... Down a Fourth of my reserves." panted Naruto as he watched Jiraiya walk over to him

"Gaki. The reason that took so much out of you is because you used water from the air instead of from a lake or even the ground. Seeing as your natural element is wind, it's harder for you to use other elements." stated Jiraiya. "Plus the fact that you tried to use the water dragon without using a few hand signs didn't help."

"The second hokage used the water dragon with only one hand sign. If I can do it with less hand seals, then it will be more useful in a fight." stated Naruto as he got up.

"Very true, but to properly do that, you need to have Kage level control, which even with shadow clone training and kyuubi no longer messing up your chakra flow, you're still years, maybe even decades away from." stated Jiraiya as he walked over to Tenzo.

"So what now? He needs to be back in a week, so we still have a few days to train him." stated Tenzo.

"Why not give the kid a break? He's already low chunin without using kyuubi chakra, and with it he might as well be low jonin. He deserves some time off. Plus, we still have to get him his new clothes, seeing as we destroyed that outfit." stated Jiraiya as he started walking away, not waiting for tenzos input. "C'mon Gaki, me and Tenzo have a suprise for ya."

* * *

-Konoha-

Sasuke once again flashed through hand signs and then gripped his forearm as chakra began to gather in his palm, growing and churning until it seemed to come to life with a high pitched scream as it sparked and danced, ripping chunks out the earth around him. Sasuke then rushed at the training dummy, sharingan blazing as he thrusted the ball of electricity into it's chest, splinters exploding from the impact site.

"Very good Sasuke. But you still haven't mastered the just yet. We will try again tomorrow, for right now, let's work on speed." stated Kakashi. "And remember Sasuke, the chidori is an assassination technique. It has no other purpose but to kill. You will only use this Jutsu do defend your comrades."

Sasuke simply nodded as he turned away from his sensei. 'This is the perfect tool to kill him. Don't you worry Dobe. Now that I have this, I won't need to kill you. Just as long as you don't stand in my way.'

* * *

-Weapons shop in wave-

"Welcome back Shinobi san! Welcome to my store naruto sama!" called out the shop owner as the trio of shinobi made there way into the surprisingly large shinobi store.

"Hello Kadio. Have you finished the orders?" asked Jiraiya, naruto sent him a questioning look.

"But of course! My young seamstress finished the large order weeks ago. The second order was finished a few days ago." stated Kadio with a smile. "Let me go get them."

Naruto watched as the man shot into the back room of the shop. "Did he just call me Naruto Sama?"

"That he did Gaki. I'd imagine that everyone in this village, hell, the whole country thinks of you as a hero." stated Jiraiya.

"It's true Naruto. You haven't seen it because you've only been to the graves and to Tazuna sans. Everyone that has seen my headband asks about you, and there hasn't been a single one who had anything but good things to say about you." stated Tenzo

"Why would we? You saved our country naruto sama. You showed us that we could still fight. It's because of you that many of us are still alive." stated the shop owner as he came out of the back room, placing three boxes of the counter. "These two are your orders, this third one was left here by a beautiful redheaded woman."

"Mei née chan?" questioned Naruto to himself, though Jiraiya had heard him.

"Oh ho! So the Gaki has a cute little girlfriend he's been hiding from us. What do you think Tenzo?" questioned Jiraiya

"How cute. Though I'm curious as to when he would have met her? We got here and almost immediately started his training." stated Tenzo

"I met her when I went to visit Zabuza and get my blade. She said that she was a friend of his, and after we fought, she said that she had to go back to mist." stated Naruto. He then pulled a scroll and showed it to the other men in the room. "She's the one who gave me the scroll that had all the water Jutsu I know."

"Hmm, must be fellow jonin? Do you know her last name Gaki?" asked Jiraiya.

"Well... No. She never gave it." stated Naruto while he rubbed the back of his head. "What did she give me?"

"Well lets see." stated the store owners he handed the box over to naruto.

Naruto opened the box, only to pull out two belts and a letter.

'Dear Naruto kun.

It was one of Zabuza's dreams to truly master the art of silent killing. Which according to him was to become completely undetectable. I'm not sure that it's possible, but seeing as he left his sword to you, I believe you are the one to finish this dream. I don't have any scrolls on the silent killing technique, but hopefully this will help. Simply wear one belt around your chest and one around your waist, channel some chakra into them and the sword will stick to the belts, even through clothing.

Make him proud naruto kun

Mei'

"Gaki, if you keep going at this rate, you'll be buried in letters and gifts." laughed Jiraiya "But, that will go perfect with our gifts."

Naruto opened the next box, revealing a new outfit. Naruto was at a loss for words as he looked at the new clothes, and was only taken out of his thoughts when he heard Tenzo speak "We knew you would never give up the color orange, so we simply toned it down. Go ahead and put it on, I believe there's a changing room over in the corner."

Naruto darted into the small room in the back corner of the store, only to emerge A minute later, donning his new outfit, which consisted of a dark blue long sleeved shirt with dark orange stripes going from his armpits to his hips, a giant red and black swirl on his back. His pants were much the same as his shirt, dark blue ANBU style pants that had the same dark orange stripes, continuing from his hips, disappearing into his dark orange shinobi sandals. His mothers headband still lay across the side of his head.

"Looking sharp Gaki! Looks like you're going to be breaking a lot of hearts." stated Jiraiya 'My lord, he looks almost exactly like Minato. I can't wait to see everyone's smug faces when he arrives at the chunin exams and beats the hyuga, all while resembling his father.'

"It's awesome! Thank you both so much." thanked Naruto with tears in his eyes. The shop owner was once again amazed that the hero of wave was reduced to tears by simply being given an outfit, a very expensive and well made outfit mind you, but an outfit nonetheless.

"Open the last one Gaki." stated Jiraiya. 'If he likes the outfit, he's going to love this. Such a shame the village held him back. Minato... Would you have saved them if you knew this was your son's fate?'

Naruto nodded and wiped his eyes, moving over to the counter once again, taking the box into his hands, pulling the lid off. "No way..."

* * *

(Rixxell Stryfe! Ill be awaiting your reviews!)

(For the rest of you fine upstanding people and various other animals that enjoy my Writing, Read, Review, Send me some money...)


	4. Chapter 4: The New Naruto

Disclaimer: like me on facebook! Jiraiya's lost student

* * *

"No way..."

"I take it you like it Gaki?"  
Asked Jiraiya as he Watched Naruto pull a blue jacket with orange flames licking the bottom and sleeves. On the back was the kanji for 'Demon of the Leaf'

Naruto was at a loss for words as he put the jacket on and moved around in it. He was surprised that there was almost no loss of movement and it hid the twin belts that made up his holster. In the front of the jacket, there was a spot where he could hook a forehead protector. "You didn't need to do all of this..."

"I may not have needed to, but I did. You said you wouldn't wear his jacket, so I got you your own."

* * *

-Flash back-

"Naruto? Gaki? You alright?" asked Jiraiya

"Yeah... Better than ever." retorted Naruto as he moved down the bridge, studying every square inch of it as he walked.

"Naruto, what was in that scroll that Lord Hokage gave you?" asked Tenzo, walking next to Jiraiya.

"Huh? Oh that! I don't know. Why don't I check and see?" naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out the scroll, rolled it open and stared at it. "It's a seal?"

"Well what are ya waiting for brat? Put some chakra into the center of the seal." stated Jiraiya 'Naruto is going to flip out when he sees what's in that seal.'

One poof later, Naruto was frozen In place on the bridge, in one hand, the scroll, in the other, the Yondaime's jacket. "Wha- Why would he give me this?"

"Cause brat. When he sealed that beast inside you, it wasn't only to save the village. He wanted you to be able to use its power to protect the village. Now that you can do just that, he would want you to have it." stated Jiraiya 'Doesn't hurt that you're his son, and other than your mothers personality, you're a carbon copy of him.'

"I can't wear this! He was the greatest shinobi of all time! It would be right to wear this... Not until I'm hokage." stated Naruto with conviction. Jiraiya smiled softly, remembering a time where Minato refused a gift from himself the same reason. 'Minato, he's so much like you...'

* * *

-flash back end-

"Alright brat, no tears. Let's get going, we have less than a week left and we still have one last place to go."

* * *

-Konoha-

The Sandaime observed the three men and one woman in front of him. Hayate was coughing as usual, though his condition was getting better, he kept up the appearance of being sick to force others to underestimate him.

"What have you all found?" asked Sarutobi, already smoking his pipe.

"We believe that there has been major favoritism shown throughout the academy, but as far as we can tell, Kakashi has just just been a shitty sensei." stated Ibiki, stepping forward and handing the aged Kage a binder.

"Explain. The Kakashi part first and then the academy." instructed the aged Kage.

"Up until the Uchiha obtained the curse seal, Kakashi seemed to teach only teamwork exercises and use d ranks as his physical training. Usually this would be frowned upon, but from all accounts, team sevens teamwork was held together by a thread, so I personally can't blame him too much, especially because for most of his life, he's believed teamwork was the most important part of being a shinobi. The C rank turned A rank, looking back, was actually not that bad of an idea. Kakashi had estimated it to be mid b rank and he could handle that by himself, as shown by his track record. I believe he figured that the stress of a high ranking mission would kick them into gear and force them to start working together. Subsequently, it did just that, as both Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno started working better with Naruto Uzumaki, who Kakashi had said at one point was the glue that held the team together." stated Ibiki, hiruzen nodded, remembering most of this informations from the team reports.

Anko began next. "After Kakashi found out that Sasuke was marked with the curse mark, he immediately began setting up a sealing room, asking Maito Gai to watch after his team while he did so. Kakashi then reported that he sealed the curse mark with a twin evil suppressing seal after his preliminary match, making it controlled by Sasuke's will, which personally, I think was the fucking stupidest thing he could have done, seeing as the brat has a revenge complex, and will run to any source of power he can find."

Sarutobi had to agree with the foul mouthed Anko on that level. He made a mental note to have Jiraiya apply another set of seals to completely destroy the possibility of Sasuke ever using it again.

"After that we have several witnesses that say they saw Kakashi and Uzumaki conversing outside of Rock Lee's room, an argument broke out when Kakashi all but cast naruto off with special jonin Ebisu, and was heard saying that Uzumaki wasn't worth his time at the moment. After that he took Sasuke out of the village to train, they are currently on the bluffs of Foster Canyon." stated Hayate. "It's my personal opinion that the reason Kakashi is promoting the Uchihas growth to do right by obito by helping Sasuke make chunin, then maybe he will help out Naruto and the Haruno."

Sarutobi nodded at the information "Yes, Jiraiya had said that they were training near there, and I have the paperwork from Kakashi... What have you all found at the academy?"

Genma stepped forward and began. "At first it seemed like Uzumaki was simply a dead last, which wouldn't be that surprising, as he had no one to help him outside of the classes. Looking back on the written exams scores, He consistently was scoring class low grades, though he rarely outright failed, leading us to believe that the instructors only taught him half of the curriculum. His physicals scores were much the same, all just barely above passing, but going back and looking over the obstacle course tapes, Uzumaki was always in the top five in evasion, speed, reflexes and usually could get his way out of any predicament he found himself in. Until teachers started to sabotage him. This continued until he reached Iruka's class, where he started to gradually improve, near the middle of the year, he was hanging in the middle of the class. It was then that other teachers started to volunteer their help in training naruto in their specialty subjects, at which point naruto started to fall behind again, eventually causing him to become the dead last."

"Thank you for the reports. I would like every teacher, active or retired, that you believe may have hampered Naruto's growth, to be sent to Anko and Ibiki, if the suspicions are found true, they are to have their chakra sealed and be placed in prison, charge them with treason for undermining the military power of this village. If you manage to connect any of them with mizuki on anything greater that a friendship level, I want them taken to Inoichi, where he will scan their memories."

* * *

-Outside Konoha-

"Pervy sage? What is this place?" asked Naruto as he looked at group of buildings that looked like they hadn't seen human contact in twenty years.

"This is the Uzumaki Shrine kid. Usually, it impossible to find, because of the genjutsu barriers, you have to go through a tunnel and all sorts of other shit to avoid those though." stated Jiraiya as he moved to the center of the courtyard and began setting up camp.

"I thought this place was a myth..." stated Tenzo, moving to make a makeshift tent out of wood. 'I swear, the second I figure out that house Jutsu...'

"It's no myth. You can only enter this place if you've been inside before with an Uzumaki. Come on brat, we got five days till the chunin exams and I think you're ready to start learning some new chakra control exercises." stated Jiraiya, naruto nodded and looked around, seeing several things that caught his eyes. "The sooner we get started, the sooner you can take a look around, You can do these exercises while walking around."

* * *

-Five days later, Chunin exam stadium-

"Hello Hokage Dono. I see you are in good health." stated The Kazekage, sitting in his seat, three bodyguards around him.

"Same for you Kazekage Dono. It is quite a trip from your village to mine." stated Sarutobi.

"Never did like the desert. It took a fair amount of our men in the second great war." stated Jiraiya, who had appeared next to Hiruzen. "Then again, our forest did the same for Kumo, so I guess I can't complain."

"Indeed. It also helps in the conditioning of our ninja." stated the Kazekage thoughtfully. "Excuse me hokage Dono, but I believe we are missing some competitors."

Hiruzen looked down to the arena floor. Seeing everyone but Naruto and Dosu, who had gone missing during the month break. "Jiraiya, where is naruto? You were supposed to be back yesterday."

"We bunked overnight outside the village. Don't worry though. He'll be here, actually, he probably already is, though you might not recognize him."

* * *

-Arena floor-

"Uzumaki shows he's nothing but a failure." Stated Neji "Though at least he knows when to quit, fate has already declared me the winner.

'You better show up Dobe. I want to know what that power was.' thought Sasuke darkly, his mind revolving around the burst of pure power that he felt when Kakashi first took him to foster canyon. 'I came back a full day early just so I could question that idiot on that power, and that Dobe had the gall to actually leave the village when he needed to answer my questions!'

'Hmm... If I crush someone's toes... Could they still walk?' wondered Gaara absentmindedly 'When I get back home i will ask Doctor Mabuutwo'

'Oh shit, Gaara's got that calculating look in his eyes! I hope father knows what he's doing.' thought Temari.

'bananas are delicious.' thought shino

'Wonder where Naruto is? He only has a minute to show up...' thought Genma. 'The Uchiha is here though. I wonder if Uzumaki is around as well?'

'Perhaps if I crush only one set of toes... Would they walk around in circles? Where is Uzumaki? Mother says to be weary of him...' thought Gaara

"Naruto Uzumaki has one minute To report to the arena before he is disqualified!" stated Genma.

An eerie silence fell over the crowd before a demonic like voice sounded from everywhere at once. "Feel free to start the match, I'm already here."

A horrified look appeared on several faces. Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi because of the flashbacks of Zabuza. Neji because he could not find the source of the voice with his all seeing eyes. Gai and Kurenai, who had both faced one of the seven swordsman in battle, both started to sweat, believing one of the former swordsmen had infiltrated the village.

"Alriighhht, would Neji hyuga and Naruto Uzumaki remain... Wherever you are, everyone else, move back to the box." stated Genma, the chunin hopefuls all moved to the box, each looking around for the orange wearing shinobi. "Are both fighters ready?"

"Of course, if Uzumaki isn't too cowardly as to not show himself." Stated Neji with a confident smirk, though on the inside he was beginning to become frightened.

"Such a shame." spoke the voice again, sending chills up almost everyone's spines. "You hyuga are said to see everything, yet you fail to see what's in plain sight. I guess the Hyuga are not as great as everyone believes."

"Show yourself coward!" shouted Neji "Fate has sealed my victory, there's no reason to hide!"

"A ninja is a silent assassin, protecting the village from the shadows as an unseen protector. I am anything but a coward. I am a true ninja. But seeing as you're incompetent. Look at the top of the Kage box." everyone's eyes shot to the top of the Kage box, and most over the age of 16 began freaking out.

Standing at the edge of the roof, stood a blond figure, hair draping to his shoulders, one side of his face framed by a bang of hair, while the other was being held back by a black headband that sat on the side of his head, a blue and orange outfit, and Blue short sleeve jacket with orange flames licking the bottom and sleeves, a sword handle stuck out behind his head. Whispers sounded off throughout the stadium ranging from shock that the Yondaime had returned to hatred that the kyuubi brat was emulating their greatest hero. The most notable was Kakashi, who seemed to be literally frozen, unable to even think after seeing just how much naruto resembled his sensei.

Naruto disappeared from the roof and appeared ten feet from the hyuga, his giant sword held in his right hand, which he planted into the ground next to him. "Start the match. It's time this pile of shit pay for his actions."

"Right... First match! Neji hyuga vs Naruto Uzumaki, Begin."

"Nice entrance. But style points mean nothing in this fight. You are fated to lose."

Naruto started Flying through hand signs "Water style! Great collision wave!" a torrent of water left Naruto's mouth, surging towards the hyuuga prodigy, who was too surprised to move in time and was swept into the wall, leaving a Neji shaped indent. As the water settled, covering the arena floor in a foot thick layer of water, Neji pried himself out of his crater and fell to his knees on the surface of the water.

"Get up. I'm tired of being underestimated. I'm going to make it known here and now that I'm not the dead last, that I'm not just some fodder." stated Naruto as he channeled Kurama's chakra, just enough to shield his chakra network, giving him an eerie reddish glow. "You better pull out all the stops Neji, cuz I'm coming for you."

* * *

-With teams seven eight nine and ten-

"Man, when did naruto become so cool?" questioned Ino, her interested peaked by this new and in her opinion, very much improved naruto.

"When did he learn that Jutsu? He never used it against me? And what about the sword?" questioned Kiba, angry that he had lost to the blonde when he wasn't even using all his arsenal.

"Well, when Orochimaru hit him, he said something about a seal, Naruto said that his chakra felt funny?" Stated Sakura, staring at the sword that was planted in the ground. "But that's Zabuza Momochi's sword."

"Who's Zabuza Momochi?" asked Choji.

"An A class Nuke Nin from Kiri that we fought on our c rank turned a rank. It's Likely that naruto went back during the month break to retrieve it. Plus he's wearing his headband like Zabuza did, most likely as a way to show his respect." stated Kakashi 'plus naruto just used a b ranked water Jutsu with only three fourths of the standard hand seals... Why were you hiding your strength from me naruto?'

* * *

-Kage box-

Sarutobi watched with a smile as his surrogate grandson showed his true colors to the rest of the village 'Minato, Kushina. If only you could see him know.'

* * *

-Arena floor-

Naruto dodged another set of strikes from the hyuga prodigy, using his momentum, he spun and sent a vicious kick at Nejis head, which was blocked by the hyuga's arm.

Neji winced in pain as he was forced to block another blow, which was about as strong as lees. 'This is insane! The only reason I can even track him is because of the byakugan! And why is there red chakra surrounding his body?'

"It's time I end this." stated Naruto as he jumped away from their deadly lake top dance, landing about thirty feet away, flashing through hand signs in a blur, so fast that all Neji saw was a blur, a blur that ended on the dragon symbol. "Water style! Water dragon Jutsu."

Everyone in the stadium was amazed and somewhat horrified as a fifty foot tall water dragon grew up from the water behind naruto, using every ounce of water on the floor of the arena. The creature then rushed at Neji at near jonin speeds, forcing the hyuga prodigy to use his best move.

"Rotation!" shouted Neji, spinning at incredible speeds and releasing a large portion of his chakra. As the dragon hit the spinning dome of chakra, it exploded in all different directions, sending water everywhere, drenching everyone within range of the blast. As both attacks ended, everyone witnessed a slightly panting naruto, standing on the slowly rising water, and Neji, on both knees and panting heavily as the water rose around him. "Heh. You cannot escape fate. Do you understand now? I was fated to win the match ever since you were made my opponent. And now, you're within my range."

Bursting out of his down position, Neji began hitting Naruto's chakra system with everything he had, chakra points, Organs even hitting his chakra coils a couple of times, though Naruto just seemed to tank every hit. As Neji's last strike hit, his vision went black.

Naruto had had just about enough of the hyuga poking him, and delivered a strike of his own, blasting the hyuga on the bridge of the nose with a Kurama powered punch, sending him flying across the arena, skipping and skidding across the water limply before splashing to a stop, floating face up in the water. "Fate means nothing. Fate, revenge, honor, there all nothing but crutches used by weak people to justify their actions."

Naruto turned around, pulling his sword from the ground and placed it on his back, where his belts held it in place through his coat, and began walking towards the stairs that led to the contestant box, passing the med Nin that were rushing towards the downed hyuga.

"Winner! Naruto Uzumaki!"

* * *

-Kage box-

"He's grown well Jiraiya. Once again you prove that you're one of the best sensei's the world has ever known." stated Sarutobi with a kind laugh.

"Actually sensei, he did most of what you've seen on his own. I taught him a few earth Jutsu and refined his taijutsu and chakra control." stated Jiraiya with a smirk, thinking of how hard his student worked.

'That brat! I hate that brat! It's obvious that he's Minato's son! I want that brat dead. I know, I'll postpone the invasion and let Gaara kill him. I'll just have Kabuto step in if Sasuke kun is in any danger, after all, he is a medic.' though Orochimaru, sending out a discreet message to the bed Nin.

* * *

-Contestant box-

"Where did you learn those Jutsu Dobe? And why couldn't I copy them?" demanded Sasuke, but naruto simply walked past him, moving to Gaara. "Don't you walk away from me Dobe! I'm talking to you."

Naruto just continued to ignore the pissed off avenger, standing in front of Gaara. "You are one, I am nine."

Everyone went quiet, wondering what the blonde was talking about. Gaara nodded and spoke. "Mother told me as much. You have very good control. I wish to fight you most of all."

"Then it will be a fight between us. You finish your fight quickly, and I'll fight you with everything I have." stated Naruto seriously, his blue eyes boring into Gaaras green "And don't kill him."

Gaara stared at the blonde for a few seconds, before nodding "I will not kill him, but if you disappoint me, he will die, along with everyone else." Gaara then disappeared in a swirl of sand, appearing on the water.

"Answer me Dobe! Why do you have Zabuza's sword, where did you learn those Jutsu and what was that power you used!" shouted Sasuke.

* * *

-Flashback-

"Ok Naruto. It's time I tell you something that took me most of my life to figure out." stated Jiraiya seriously as he sat down on the steps of the Uzumaki shrine.

"What is it Sensei?" asked Naruto, understanding that whenever Jiraiya was being serious and used his real name, it was important.

"There are certain types of people in this world. There are those that face the world head on, and those that hide behind beliefs. We tend to face everything head on, using our own power. Then there are those like Orochimaru, who has hidden his entire life. As a child he lost his parents, and used it as an excuse, he never got over the tragedy of losing his parents, and he slowly switched crutches, moving from honor to revenge to even fate. Only the weak hide behind words naruto. The strong face their problems face to face, head on and with everything they got."

* * *

-End flashback-

Naruto turned to the Uchiha and with speed that Sasuke couldn't track with his sharingan, he found Naruto's hand around his throat. "No more Uchiha. I will no longer be the team seven punching bag. You want my hard work, to fucking bad. I've worked for everything I've ever had while you use those vile eyes of yours to just steal others hard work. This is the last time I say it Teme, I will never give you anything that is mine." naruto then threw Sasuke out into the stadium, leaving a majority of the crowd stunned.

"Good to see you join us. Are both fighters ready?" asked Genma

Gaara nodded and began leaking chakra into the ground to create more sand. 'Uzumaki is the target, this Uchiha no longer interests me...'

"I would usually play around with you, but I need answers from the Dobe. I'll end this in one move." stated Sasuke, activating his sharingan.

"Begin."

Sasuke immediately jumped away, creating the distance he would need to gather speed. "This is the power of the Uchiha!" Sasuke ran through hand seals and gripped his wrist, electricity gathered in his palm and began chirping. Sasuke charged the still stationary red head, grinning like a madman that he could finally try this Jutsu out on a living target. "Chidori!"

As Sasuke was rapidly approaching, Gaara surrounded himself in a dome of sand, making sure the walls were thicker than the Uchihas arm was long. Everyone watched as Sasuke plunged his arm into the sand with no resistance, and the civilians began to cheer, that is, until Sasuke screamed out in pain.

Inside the dome, Gaara was having far too much fun. He used his sands to dislocate all of Sasuke's fingers, along with his wrist and elbow. He then sent his sand to cover the Uchihas body, letting the dome fall as he enveloped Sasuke in sand. "You're lucky that Uzumaki wants you alive, though I don't understand why, if I were him, I would have killed you long ago. Proctor! This match is over!"

"Winner! Gaara of the desert!" called out Genma as he watch the sand leave Sasuke, he was disgusted when he saw that Sasuke's left arm was now about four inches longer than his right.

"Hope that the Uzumaki gives me a good fight, or I will be coming back and finishing you off."

* * *

(Read, review, do as the Egyptians do, then and only then, will you find your true love)

(Rixxell! ill be waiting...)


	5. Chapter 5: The Demon's Lullaby

Disclaimer: Jiraiya's lost student is my name look me up on the facebook.

* * *

"You summoned me?" questioned Naruto from a knee in front of the hokage and Kazekage.

"You may rise naruto, it doesn't suit you to be on a knee." stated Sarutobi kindly. "Quite the performance, I did not know you had a water affinity, though with Kushina as your mother, I shouldn't be surprised. You are an Uzumaki after all."

"Hehe, about that... I don't have a water affinity, mines wind." stated Naruto, getting a shocked look from both Sarutobi and the Kazekage.

"What? Are you saying that you were able to use two of the most infamous water Jutsu, with less than the normally required hand seals... Without an affinity for water?" questioned Sarutobi, his mind racing to figure out how that was possible.

"Well... Yea. I mean, what's the point of having two high ranking Jutsu if it takes like five to fifteen seconds just to do the seals? I'd be dead before I got halfway through the hand seals." stated Naruto, not understanding the complexity of his Jutsu.

"That's not what I'm talking about naruto. It's the fact that not even I can do those Jutsu without the full amount of seals, because I do not posses a water affinity." stated Sarutobi, as he glanced down to the start of Shikamaru's match. He turned to see a confused look on Naruto's face. "I know every Jutsu in Konoha's position, minus personal Jutsu of my ninja and clans. I can use every basic element, but I only have an affinity for earth and fire. I can perform a fire dragon and earth dragon with two or three handsigns, but for Jutsu like the water and lightning dragon, I must use all the handsigns."

"Ohh sooo... Does that mean I have an affinity for water as well as earth and Wind?" questioned Naruto "When I did that card thing, it only showed I had wind?"

"Can you do earth Jutsu with less than the standard seals?" questioned Sarutobi, to which naruto nodded. "You are indeed a very talented shinobi naruto, don't be surprised if you make chunin at the end of these finals."

"Let him fight Gaara first. I was rather disappointed in the Uchiha, perhaps you can give Gaara a challenge, young Uzumaki." stated the Kazekage, truly wanting to see what the Uzumaki could do, especially if he had heard right about him being Kushina's son.

"I have to, otherwise your son will kill my friends, even If it means starting a war. It makes me wonder, if he has such free reign in an allied village, how does he behave in his own village?" questioned naruto, subtly using just enough of Kurama's chakra to increase his senses, feeling a spike of anger come from the Kazekage.

"I suggest you tread lightly Genin. Insulting a Kage, even an allied one, can cost you your life." stated the Kazekage, his voice dangerous.

Jiraiya was about to shut naruto up when Naruto felt a huge spike of Negative emotions, and retorted.

"I would rather kill myself then die by the hand of a man who doesn't even have the respect of his own son. At least I hope that's what is going on. Hate to find out that you're planning on betraying our trust. After all, letting a mentally unstable Jinchuuriki loose in any village could be considered an act of war." Naruto turned away from the frozen wind shadow and towards the old man. "May I go now? I would like to congratulate Shikamaru on his loss."

Sarutobi, lost in thought simply nodded and said "Of course my boy. Be careful fighting Gaara, he's much stronger than Neji."

Naruto nodded and moved to pass Jiraiya, only to pause and whisper to him "Something's wrong Pervy sage. There's five different signatures besides the Kazekage, and all their emotions are Negative."

* * *

-Medical bay-

"You're very skilled for being a genin, we've already repaired all the joints in his fingers and his elbow." stated a random med Nin that had been dedicated to fixing the last Uchihas all but crushed arm.

"It's really nothing. All the joints were popped out of place with a pulling motion. It's the easiest dislocation to heal, and he should be back to full range of motion in no time." stated Kabuto with a smile, though on the inside, his mind was running a mile a minute. 'Orochimaru ordered me to heal Sasuke, but doing this will delay the invasion. It could even stop it from happening. And why has he changed the start signal? Does he want to see that idiot get killed by Gaara?'

* * *

-Contestant box-

"Really Shika? I knew you would quit, but why quit right before you were going to win?" questioned Naruto, a deadpan expression on his face.

"Well, it would be troublesome to go on fighting. I'm already low on chakra, and having to face shino next, there's a slim chance I would have been able to finish the fight before his bugs drained me, then even if I somehow managed to beat shino, who is still fresh after make up boy forfeited, the I'd be facing you or Gaara. And there is no way in hell I'd want to fight either of you." explained Shikamaru, who then took a large breath and leaned up against the wall.

"Wow, I think that's the most you've ever said at once?" Stated Naruto as he started moving towards the doorway out of the contestant box. "Seeya later Shika."

"Where are you going?" questioned Shikamaru, his interest peaked in the blonde.

"Well I got a half hour before my fight with Gaara, so I'm going to get ready."

* * *

-Hokage monument, in Naruto's mindscape-

"Ok, can I ask about his abilities?" asked naruto as he sat on the edge of Kurama's area.

**"Well, we've both seen the redhead use sand, but being a Jinchuuriki, he can also transform into a half form, maybe even a full form of Shukaku. Lucky for you, the best way to slow him down, maybe even stop his sand attacks completely, is to soak it with water."**

"So all i need to do is soak his sand with water?"

**"No, soaking the sand with water will only slow down the movement of that sand. The best thing to do if he doesn't go half of full form would be to break that gord on his back and and drench his sand with water, then attack as fast as possible, dodge the slower sand, and beat the shit out of the kid."**

"And if he goes half or full form? What then?"

**"Duhhh you have a massive sword on your back! If he goes half form, soak him with water and hack away. If he goes full form... I guess we're going to find out just how much chakra you can handle. What was your last max out?"**

"Twelve percent flow rate. That's what I could use two days ago."

**"That should be just about enough for the lower six tails. You're still not skilled enough with the tailed beast chains to help at all... How is the Tailed beast bomb coming?"**

* * *

-With Gaara-

"What's he planning? We were suppose to begin when you beat the Uchiha?" questioned Kankuro, confused that the invasion had yet to start.

"It does not matter. I get to fight Uzumaki in ten minutes. He will be the one to test my power." stated Gaara, his tone dangerous and his eyes bloodshot.

"What's so special about the Uzumaki? You tossed the Uchiha around like he was nothing, so why would the blonde be any different?" asked baki, who on top of being confused about the invasion not starting, was also confused about Gaaras choice of target. He was suppose to target the strong jonin, not some punk that got lucky versus a hyuga.

"My choices are none of your concern. Just know that I choose he is the one I will fight, this invasion is not my priority."

* * *

-Arena floor-

Naruto appeared in a red blur, or as he called it, a Kurama shunshin, as it was a simple shunshin that he used the bijuus chakra for. He looked around, seeing that not everyone was in their seats yet, he decided look around to see where everyone was. Jiraiya was still standing next to the old man, figures, he would either be there or at a hot spring. Kakashi was staring at him, no doubt either still in shock from his new look, that he beat Neji or some other pointless thing, or perhaps he was angry about naruto winning when Sasuke, his star pupil had not. Oh well, he didn't care. He was already off of team seven anyway, he wouldn't have to deal with him anymore.

Sakura had yet to notice he was on the arena floor, that or she just didn't care. She too was most likely angry that he had beaten Neji when Sasuke had lost. Ino was staring at him with the same look she always gave Sasuke, which he had to admit, he wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. Tenten, Gai and lee we're all aware of his presence but were all talking amongst themselves, most likely how he had beaten their strongest member. Shikamaru and shino had made their way back to their respective teams and senseis, and we're either congratulated for his loss, or in shinos case, was listening to the idle conversation around him.

Genma appeared next to him, a kind smile on his face. "Don't worry kid, I got your back if this heads south."

"Your one of the few that do. Thank you for that." stated Naruto calmly and kindly.

"You know kid, you're nothing like I remember from before last month. I'm kinda diggin it. But you should still pull a prank every now or then." smiled Genma as he balanced a senbon in his lower lip.

Naruto was about to respond when he felt a huge swelling of Negative emotions flare up roughly fifteen feet from him. He turned and looked at the spot Gaara appeared.

'Did he sense me? Not even Baki can sense me? You definitely will be the one to challenge me.' thought Gaara with a maniacal grin. "Let's start this now, I will not wait any longer!"

'Oh shit, I hope you're as strong as you look kid.' thought Genma "The first fight of the second round. Naruto Uzumaki vs Gaara of the desert. Are both fighters ready?" both nodded, waiting for the fight to begin. "Begin!"

Gaara lashes out with a sand spear aimed at the blondes heart, which he blocked with the flat of his sword before he spun around and chopped at the side of the red head, only for a wall of sand to block it before naruto retreated from another sand attack.

'how is the ground completely dry? There was a foot of water on it when I left! Oh well...' "Water style: great collision wave!" naruto once again blasted a torrent of water out of his mouth, aimed at the sand using Jinchuuriki. Gaara blocked the powerful water attack, though found his sand was much harder to control, forcing him to use far more chakra and concentration to use, as well as reacting slower. "Water style: Hidden mist Jutsu!"

* * *

-Kakashi and company-

"That's Zabuza's Jutsu!" cried out sakura, shocked to see the Jutsu she almost died in.

"He doesn't seem to have the same control over it that Zabuza did..." thought Kakashi out loud.

"Asuma... Can you see into the mist?" questioned Gai

"No, the kid made it even thicker than Kushimaru's... How much chakra does he have?"

* * *

-Arena-

Gaara was starting to panic, his sand was becoming almost impossible to control and he couldn't make any more do to the fact that the ground was covered in water. Add the fact he could no longer see or hear his opponent, which should be impossible as the were standing on water, and you have one frightened redhead.

"_One. Two. I'm coming for you..._" sounded a demonic naruto from everywhere at once. Everything was silent as they felt chills crawl up their spine.

"_Three. Four. I'm coming back for more..._" Gaara suddenly felt his sand struggle to his back, barely blocking a heavy blow from the blondes giant blade that would have cut the Suna Jinchuuriki in half.

"_Five. Six. Throw some blood in the mix..._" Gaara, fearing another strike, began coating himself in his drenched sand, trying his best to shake the water out of it so that he could use it more effectively.

"_Seven. Eight. Death is your fate..._" a vicious killing intent rolled out of the mist, turning the chill crawling up everyone's spine turned into a blade of ice stabbing into their hearts.

"_Nine, TEN!_" the sound of metal slashing into earth sounded, Gaara felt a pain in his left bicep. He looked to see the giant blade stuck about an inch into the sand, blood running down the face of the giant cleaver, he followed the blade and saw his opponent holding it. "_Let's play again._"

Naruto ripped the blade free as he slid it along the wound, forcing Gaara to shriek in pain. "Blood! It's my blood! I'll kill you!"

Everyone what was now confused as to what was going on inside the mist as all most had been hearing was a demon singing some kind of nightmare tune, though some jonin could hear the footsteps on the water, even I'd just barely, and we're very impressed that a genin had so much stealth.

Naruto felt another great wave of Negative emotions as muck started growing up from the ground, surrounding the injured redhead. Sending some more of Kyuubi's chakra to his eyes, he saw that Gaara now had his whole left side covered in wet sand, his left eye was now a gold diamond with a black backdrop. Suddenly, the mist exploded outward as the Shukaku induced Gaara flared his chakra, as well as drying the sand around him. "Come Uzumaki! Make me feel alive!"

Naruto knew the fun and games were over and began channeling Kurama's chakra throughout his body, going straight to the maximum amount he knew he could handle, his body was encased in a red, almost orange glow as his cloak billowed in a non existent wind. He was going to end this right now.

Naruto shot forward at low jonin speed, but had to dodge a sand that extended out towards him. He spun, cutting it off as he moved quickly towards the sand covered shinobi. He watched as the sand that had made up the arm returned quickly to Gaara and began to coat his left side, encasing most of Gaaras torso in sand. Naruto saw that Gaara was getting out of control, sending another chop at the injured arm of the Suna Nin, naruto began leading him out of and away from the stadium.

'Shit! I can't put everyone in danger if he goes full blown Shukaku! I need to lead him away.' Thought naruto as he lunged and punched the wall on the opposite side of the spectator boxes, blowing out a large section of the wall and began running.

"Where are you going Uzumaki! Don't you run from me!" shouted Gaara as he took the bait, following naruto out of the stadium and up the face of the hokage monument.

* * *

-With Hiruzen-

"Kazekage Dono... What exactly is going on?" questioned the hokage in a neutral tone, even though on the inside he was quite pleased. 'That was fantastic! I still have chills up my spine. My word, what a great intimidation tactic... I believe someone should he be added to the bingo book...'

"It appears that Gaara is embracing his inner demon and that your shinobi has led him away from the city. Quite the ninja you have there." stated the Kazekage, silently questioning why Orochimaru hadn't signaled the invasion yet.

"And if my shinobi cannot stop your son?" questioned Hiruzen, even if naruto had improved greatly, he was still going up against a bijuu crazed genin.

"Then I shall step in. Do not worry hokage Dono, I won't let my son hurt any of your shinobi other than the one currently fighting him." lied the Kazekage, sending a glare at Orochimaru.

"Gakis good, but I don't think he's good enough to stand up to an enraged Jinchuuriki." stated Jiraiya. "If things go south, I will be saving my apprentice."

Jiraiya then took off, along with Genma, following the two boys up the hokage monument.

"Go make sure he doesn't try anything until the fight is over. It would not look good for us if our best genin was beaten." stated the Kazekage, though his tone said 'Make sure you don't fuck this up.'

Orochimaru, who was hidden as a masked guard to the left of the Kazekage, simply nodded and followed his old teammate to the top of the hokage monument 'Perfect, even if Gaara doesn't kill him, I still can. Then I can start the invasion and finally kill Sarutobi sensei.'

* * *

-With Kakashi and company-

"That... Was the single most frightening thing I have ever experienced." stated Ino, her voice finally coming back to her.

"Why is he running away? He could have beat him?" questioned Kiba, still sweating from the demonic lullaby the blonde had sang.

"Please, if Sasuke kun couldn't beat him, the naruto Baka can't either." stated Sakura, though her shaking shoulders and frightened tone showed clearly that even she didn't believe what she was saying.

"You're both wrong." stated Shikamaru. "Naruto isn't running, he's lead him away so that innocent people don't get hurt. And naruto is much stronger than Sasuke. He always has been, even in the academy, naruto always improved at the same rate Sasuke did, even though Naruto had no one to learn from outside of school and was always taught wrong by the instructors."

"Yea right. Sasuke was rookie of the year!" stated Sakura, her voice back to its usually tone, though she was still shuddering every few seconds.

"And who was it that managed to prank every teacher? Who was it that was escaping ANBU at the age of ten? Who was it that somehow managed to pass every class, even though the teachers made him sit out of every single important lesson we ever had?" questioned Shikamaru, making everyone rethink the blonde, but none more so than Sakura and Kakashi.

'Hey, that's right! Naruto always had to sit in the hallway during important lectures or sit out of physical classes because of his pranks... But then how was he able to improve? He's an orphan? Is he really talented enough that he taught himself everything?' thought Sakura, her mental picture of her blonde teammate shattering.

'He was held back? But the report said that he was given special training by the best of the academy? Even I couldn't have made genin by myself!' thought Kakashi, growing sick with himself at the way he handled his team. 'I should have known! The second I started teaching them all the same, naruto began catching up much faster than should have been possible. I always just figured that the extra training he got at the academy was showing through... Extra training he never got...'

Kakashi looked up at the top of the hokage monument, seeing brown covered ninja and an orange covered ninja fighting it out. 'And now he's fighting a jonin level opponent toe to toe. How could I have been so foolish as to think that he was talentless?'

* * *

-Hokage monument-

Naruto had stopped using his sword, as he was far too slow to do any damage with it when his opponent was the same speed as he was. Now he was sending supercharged punches and kicks at the sand covered Jinchuuriki, blowing off huge chunks of sand and causing heavy damage anywhere he hit flesh.

Gaara took a hit to his injured bicep and jumped back, making some space "Your strong Uzumaki. I've never been injured before and you've managed to do it multiple times. Though that ends here, now you Die! Feigning sleep technique!"

Gaara fell limp as sand exploded around him, forming the giant form of Shukaku, who yelled out in glee "**Yeah! At long last, I'm freeeee!**"

"Oh shit... Summoning Jutsu!" shouted out naruto, a cloud of smoke matching Shukakus height revealed a massive scarlet red battle frog.

"Hello again Naruto, need my help?" asked Gamaken as he looked around, spotting the One tailed bijuu. "Ahhh I see, your fighting Shukaku... I thought he was sealed?"

"He is! His container let him take over." stated Naruto, hoping that Gamaken wasn't as clumsy as he always says.

"**Oh Gamaken! It's time to plaaay!**"

"Hold on tight naruto, we have to wake up his container, and I am quite clumsy." stated Gamaken as he lunged forward, swiping at the bijuu with his spiked sasumata, catching the giant bijuu on its right arm, tearing it off, only for another one to grow in its place. "I'm going to try and pin him, if I can, wake up the container."

Gamaken once again lunged forward, then to the side as he dodged several wind blast from the large raccoon. Finally maneuvering around the sand blasts and inside Shukaku's guard, he slammed the Sasumata around the bijuus throat, picking him up and slamming him to the ground, picking him up again holding the bijuu of the ground. "Quickly, I won't be able to hold him for long."

Naruto nodded and jumped off the large toads head, landing on the head of the bijuu, and took off towards the limp body of Gaara. Dodging spikes of sand that shot up in an attempt to stop him, naruto made his way to Gaara and smashed a punch into his injured arm.

The pain forced Gaara awake, though in his pain filled state. He couldn't tell that he was now falling at an incredible rate. He hit the ground with a wicked thump, his legs crumpling into his chest as he felt his ankles dislocate from the awkward landing.

Naruto landed about ten feet away and dropped to a knee, the smoke from Gamakens departure behind him. With his sword in his right hand, he moved towards Gaara, who was crawling away from the blonde. "Stay away from me!"

"Its almost unbearable, isn't it?" asked a stoic Naruto as he walked towards Gaara "The feeling of being all alone" Gaara's eyes widened as he stopped crawling. His fragile mind reliving all the scorn, loneliness, hatred...

Naruto, with tears in his eyes, continued "I know that feeling, I've been there, in that dark and lonely place. But now, there are others, other people that mean the world to me, I care more about them than i do myself and i won't let ANYONE hurt them. Thats why i refuse to give up, i will stop you, even if i have to kill you!"

"But why?" questioned Gaara "Why would you do this for anyone but yourself!"

"Because, they were the ones that saved me from myself, they saved me from my loneliness, they were the only ones to accept me for who i am. They are my friends." stated Naruto as he placed the sword on his back. "Were the same Gaara. You can be saved just as I was. I'll be your friend Gaara, and I'll validate your existence."

"You... Would be my friend?" asked Gaara, his voice shaking.

"Not only me, but your brother and sister too." stated naruto, he pointed to Temari and Kankuro, who had appeared behind the downed form of Gaara, horrified that anyone could take down their little brother and still be standing.

Gaara looked at his brother and sister, who were gazing at him odd stares. "Would you really be my friends? Even with everything I've done?"

Temari was the first to respond, her eyes softened and her voice calm and kind. "Gaara, you're our little brother, of course we would be your friends, we're family, we love you."

Kankuro just smiled and nodded. Gaara looked between naruto and his family, his gaze grew dim as he began crawling towards his family, who quickly rushed to help him up. As they held him up, Gaara turned his head to the blonde. "Thank you Naruto Uzumaki, for saving me... Go to your Kage, sand and sound are planning to invade."

Naruto's eyes widened, his heart raced as he once again began channelling kyuubi chakra, sprinting back to the stadium. About halfway down the face of the monument, he was met by Jiraiya and Genma.

"Congrats kid, you won the match." stated Genma, running as fast as he could, stride for stride with the orange chakra cloaked blonde.

"No time! Pervy sage, Gaara said that sand and sound were planning to invade!" crude out naruto as he made it to the bottom of the cliff face, collapsing into heap as his body finally gave out.

'**Kit! Stop channeling my chakra! You're body is starting to break down!**'

"Naruto! Are you alright?" questioned Jiraiya.

"Yea, go tell the old man about the invasion... I'll be fi..." stated Naruto as he fell out of consciousness.

Tenzo appeared, the sand siblings following him, and he picked up Naruto. "It's ok master Jiraiya. I'll bring naruto to his home. These three all confirm that sand and sound are planning to invade and have asked for asylum until the invasion is over."

Jiraiya nodded "Ok, take naruto to his parents home, bring those two with you. Me and Genma will head back to the stadium with Temari, if sand and sound don't invade, her match is next anyway."

* * *

(Done!)

(read, review, take a nap, read my other stories.)


	6. Chapter 6: Jonin?

Disclaimer: i am worth the admiration

(My new beta is the coolest)

* * *

Naruto rolled out of his bed and landed hard on the floor, waking him up. Looking around he couldn't help but try to remember the last time his room had been so clean, hell, he didn't even know that he had red carpeting...

'Wait... I don't have red carpeting... Where am I?' thought naruto as he sat up, surveying the room that he had been sleeping in. 'Hey Kurama, where am I? And why do I feel so sore?'

**"Because you used too much chakra, your muscles couldn't handle being infused with as much of my chakra as you pumped through them, and they started to break down. Thankfully, you're already healing, so the most you should be feeling right now would be like the after effects of a serious workout."**

'Thats good, does that mean I'll be faster and stronger?'

**"No. In fact, you will probably be a little slower and weaker. Your muscle were breaking down, I'm not sure if you lost anything, but you certainly didn't gain anything."**

"Shit." stated Naruto as he stood up on wobbly legs and began inspecting the room he was in, finding it somewhat dusty, as if it hadn't been lived in for a while.

**"Don't worry kit. You're body is adapting to the strain already. Soon you shouldn't suffer any ill effects at all."**

'Thanks Kurama, go ahead and get some rest.' Naruto looked over the room, he began feeling and odd sense of familiarity, as if he has been here before. The red carpet, red walls, cherry oak dressers, even the picture...

Naruto all but ran to the dresser on the right side of the bed, where there sat three pictures. One was a beautiful redhead and a very well endowed blonde, the next was a small red headed girl with a very old red headed woman. The last was old man Sarutobi and the beautiful redhead standing in the Hokage's office. Sarutobi was smiling at the camera while the redhead was smirking and pointing towards her black headband with a red leaf symbol.

"M-Mom... This is my mother... This is my mothers room..." stated Naruto as he started crying. He moved towards the doorway, opening the door and started walking down the hallway. The first door he came to was a linen closet, the next was a bathroom. The next room Naruto entered forced him to his knees.

The walls were blue, clouds painted on the ceiling, there was toys in the back left corner, dresser and mirror on the back wall... And a small crib that looked to be made out of the best wood money could buy. "This was suppose to be my room... She loved me... Someone loved me..."

Naruto got up, walked over to the crib, and sat down next to it, leaning against it carefully, making sure not to break it. This was how Jiraiya found him almost an hour later.

"I see you found your room. Like it Gaki?" stated Jiraiya from the doorway, startling Naruto who in his joy filled state had all but shut himself off from the outside world.

"She loved me Pervy sage! I had a home... No... I have a home..." stated Naruto happily as he rushed to Jiraiya, tackling him into the hallway, crying tears of joy into his chest.

"You ain't kiddin Gaki. Your mother loved you with all her heart. So did your father, I still remember him fumbling around trying to put that damn crib together." stated Jiraiya with a laugh. "Smartest man I've ever known, couldn't put that thing together to save his life."

"Y-You know who my dad is? Who is he? Where is he?" questioned Naruto as he got up off of Jiraiya.

"I knew your father better than anyone, well, except for your mother, those two were quite the pair. I'll tell you more when we get back. You have a meeting with Sensei in ten minutes, and with your injuries, I doubt you can make it there by yourself." stated Jiraiya as he led naruto outside, where naruto saw the outside of the small home. Jiraiya once again spoke up. "They had lived in a tiny one bedroom apartment before they moved in here about a month before you were born. He said that there was no way his apartment would be safe for a baby... Hell I'm surprised you lasted as long as you did in that dump."

"Wait. My apartment was..."

"That's correct Gaki. Your dad lived there from when he was a kid till he made jonin, and some time after that. Though he cleaned the place out when they moved here." stated Jiraiya "Now come on, we have to be there soon, and I don't want too late."

* * *

-Unknown location-

"So this Gaki can already use his beast chakra?" asked a blue skinned fish man.

"Yes. Zetsu reported that he is at least jonin speed and power when he uses Kyuubi's chakra." stated a dark haired teen with sharingan eyes.

"Perfect, your way faster than that, and I'm way stronger than that. He won't be a problem at all, especially after I shave his legs off." stated Kisame with his patented shark like grin.

"Do not underestimate him Kisame. He defeated the One Tails Jinchuuriki with only moderate difficulty. He also seems to have taken after your old teammate. He even calls himself the Demon of the Hidden Leaf." stated Itachi in his same monotone voice.

"Who cares? I'm the best Water Jutsu user there is, and there's no way the Gaki is better with a sword than me. Even if he was, the only sword that can handle Samehada is-"

"The Kubikiribocho, a sword the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki now possesses and wields in a devastating tandem with the Hidden Mist Jutsu, Silent Killing and possibly Chakra Nature enhancements as well." stated Itachi. He hated to admit it, but if his target could use Silent Killing and the Hidden Mist Jutsu, it limited him to only a handful of lower level genjutsu and his ninjutsu. There were ways for him to get around the Hidden Mist jutsu, though it did require setting up the battlefield as he went along.

"Well shit... Hopefully he's as good as you say, I wouldn't want to be disappointed."

* * *

-Hokages office-

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third Hokage, sat behind his desk, working on some of the massive amount of paperwork that had somehow appeared on his desk after sand and sound foolishly invaded. At the end of the battle, less than 15 Konoha ninja lost their lives, though hundreds of sand and Oto Nin were killed, including the Fourth Kazekage, who had thoughtlessly attacked the Hokage, stating that Sarutobi was nothing but a old man well past his prime. The fight was short, Sarutobi had crushed his skull in with Enma after a short taijutsu bout.

Now Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, Shino, Shikamaru, Sakura, and Sasuke, whose arm was in a cast now, we're standing before him. "Good. Now when Naruto and Jiraiya get here we can begin."

"Already here sensei." came a deep voice behind Sarutobi, everyone looked to see the Gama Sennin on the roof outside the far left window, facing the Hokage monument.

"Jiraiya, how many times have I told you to use the door? And where's Naruto?" questioned Sarutobi, not sensing the usually unrelenting ball of energy he had usually sensed when the boy was in his office.

"C'mon old man, if you can't even sense a genin, then I think it time you hand over that hat." Sarutobi's eyes widened along with everyone else's as their eyes snapped to the far right window, where a blue cloak and blonde hair were visible behind a human sized sword.

"Oh. I think I have a few years left in the tank, after all, I did just defeat a fellow Kage in combat. Now if you two would be so kind as to enter this room, we can begin." stated Sarutobi calmly, though on the inside he was still in a state of shock. 'Jiraiya I can understand, he's the king of stealth, but Naruto just snuck up on me! I didn't hear him, smell him, or even sense his chakra! How is it possible to be able to hide both his presence and that of the Kyuubi's! To have come so far in just a month...'

Naruto limped his way into the room, his body still stiff from overusing Kyuubi's chakra. He stood as far away from team seven as possible, using the massive frame of Jiraiya as a buffer to block them out as much as possible. 'I don't want to be anywhere near them when they find out I was taken off the team almost a month ago.'

"Alright, Now that everyone is here, I have some announcements to make. First off, would Shino Aburame and Shikamaru Nara please step forward?" Shino and Shikamaru stepped forward, as Sarutobi had requested, their faces showing no emotions, shino because he was an Aburame, Shikamaru because he legitimately didn't care about anything happening around him. "Due to your performances in the exams and your efforts in the invasion, you are hereby promoted to chunin."

Shikamaru's eyes widened while Shino stayed calm, though Naruto was sure he could hear his hive buzzing louder. Sasuke was about to say something, but a squeeze on his injured shoulder from Kakashi stopped him. Sarutobi handed each boy a Chunin vest, shaking each ninjas hand and wishing them good luck in their new roles.

"Now onto our second promotion of the day. Naruto Uzumaki, I am promoting you to Special Jonin. Your speed, strength, and ninjutsu are all jonin level and your tactics, along with your skill in stealth have shown greatly in both of your fights. You would be promoted to Jonin, but you're genjutsu and taijutsu are still too weak for me to do so. You're kenjutsu skills also need work." stated Sarutobi with a smile on his face, which was erased by a certain duck haired Uchiha.

"Why is the Dobe being promoted? And to Jonin no less!" questioned the Uchiha. He had seen the blonde idiot defeated the Hyuga, but the Hyuga was weak.

"Well Sasuke, after you fell to Gaara when he dislocated the joints in your hand and arm, Naruto defeated him. Naruto was the one that found out about the invasion and defeated the biggest threat to the village. On top of that, since you obviously weren't listening to what I just said, he has show jonin level skill in Water ninjutsu, stealth, tactics, speed, strength and summoned one of the big three toads." stated Sarutobi his tone final and his eyes locked onto the young Uchihas.

"Lord Hokage, though I agree with this promotion, I must ask what will happen to my team if Naruto now has Special Jonin duties?" asked Kakashi, he felt shame as he watched Naruto put his new jonin vest on under his coat, knowing he didn't help him at all, or at least since he had watched him in ANBU. Kakashi couldn't help but draw parallels between Naruto and his dead sensei, the cloak and jonin vest were the same, as well as the blue body suit, though the colors were different.

"Glad you asked. Naruto was, and has been, removed from Team Seven since before the finals of the Chunin exams. After several complaints into your teaching, I determined that Naruto was better off by himself. It will be determined later as to where he will be ressigned." stated Sarutobi, finding a strange enjoyment at the dumbfounded looks on everyone in the room, besides Naruto and Jiraiya faces.

"B-But if Naruto isn't on the team... Then what will we do?" questioned Sakura.

"Team Seven will back up other genin teams on all C-rank missions outside the village and fill in for the clan heirs on their respective teams when they have clan business. Other than that you are now on reserves." stated Sarutobi. "Now I must ask you all to leave. Jiraiya and I have some business to attend to. Kakashi, you stay, you have a lot to explain."

"I'll meet you back at your house Gaki. Oh, might want to check the basement, there is some intense material down there on sealing." stated Jiraiya as everyone left the room.

Sasuke was visibly angry, even more so than usual, at the very thought that the Dobe was stronger than him. Sakura was, for once, not following the Uchiha, her mind reliving every mean thing she had ever done to the blonde. Asuma and Kurenai were re-evaluating their own teams in their head. If Kakashi had missed the gold mine that was Naruto Uzumaki, perhaps they had as well.

"Alright, see you soon Pervy sage. Hey old man, you know where Tenzo is?" asked Naruto.

"I believe he is helping rebuild the south wall, but by now he's probably passed out from chakra exhaustion." stated Sarutobi. Naruto shot out the window at speeds only the jonin or higher could see. "Hard to believe half of his muscles are strained from that fight, isn't it?"

"He is his father's son." stated Jiraiya. "Sensei, I'm telling him tonight that Minato is his father. I'm going to be taking him with me for a while."

"You are his master now Jiraiya and as he is now granted jonin level clearance, he can leave with you whenever he wants." stated Sarutobi. "Now Kakashi, I already know that you taught them the bare minimum. Tell me in your own words why you did that, and I might let you continue to teach the other two."

* * *

-South wall-

Naruto appeared next to the nearly completely rebuilt south wall, kicking up a cloud of dust as he stopped. 'Man Kurama, how much longer until I can use your chakra without it hurting this bad?'

**'Probably a week. As long as you don't go above five percent flow you should be fine.'**

Naruto was taken out of his internal conversation when a familiar voice reached his ears "Hey there Naruto. Congrats on the promotion to Chunin! You're one of us now buddy!"

"Izumo... That's a Jonin vest..." stated Kotetsu, sitting the the gate guard box, his eyes trained on the forest green vest of the young blonde.

"What?" questioned Izumo, looking at the best in question. "How did you get a Jonin vest?"

"Simple, he was promoted to Special Jonin. How's it feel to have a thirteen year old superior to you?" stated a cheery voice behind them, they turned around to see an ANBU member.

"Hey Tenzo! I was looking for you!" stated Naruto excitedly.

"Well c'mon, there is some people I want you to meet." stated Tenzo, he adjusted his mask and took off towards the center of the village, Naruto following closely behind.

"How do you think he got a sword of the Hidden Mist?" questioned Kotetsu, staring at the back of the blonde as he bounded away.

"How does that kid do half the shit he does?"

* * *

-Konoha flower shop-

Ino was in the back room taking inventory when she heard the front door open, ringing the bells that were hung above the doorframe. "Just a moment!"

"Take your time Ino." came a crying voice from the front of the store.

"Sakura?" questioned Ino as she scrambled out of the back room. Finding her friend leaning against the counter, her face in her hands. "Sakura! What's wrong?"

"I'm such a horrible person." Sakura muttered. Ino was about to retort when Sakura looked up and smiled, her eyes puffy and her makeup running. "Shikamaru, Shino and Naruto all got promoted."

"Umm... That's great and all, but why are you crying?" questioned Ino, her voice confused as she got behind the counter.

"Naruto isn't a part of Team Seven... He hasn't been for a month." stated Sakura, still crying lightly.

"What! Why?" questioned Ino, Naruto wouldn't ask for a transfer, would he?

"I don't know, something about complaints and him requesting to leave." stated Sakura

"What? What complaints could there be? You have the strongest genin team in the village? And why would he request to leave the team?" questioned Ino.

"I don't know... After the Wave mission I started being nice to Naruto, since he basically saved mine and Sasuke's lives, but he seemed to grow more and more distant with us until the chunin exams. Then at some point during the month break, he was removed from the team and now he's a Jonin." stated Sakura

"Wait wait wait, did you just say he is a Jonin now? Seriously!" questioned Ino

"Sort of. Hokage-sama called him a Special Jonin. Something about not being skilled enough to be a Jonin but too strong to be a Chunin." stated Sakura. "But it doesn't matter anyway, now without Naruto..."

"Is your team being disbanded?" questioned Ino.

"No, we're getting a new member next graduation class, until then we are on reserve, but I don't know I'd we can even be a team anymore. With Naruto gone, there's no one to hold the team together. And if that's not bad enough, he hates me now." stated Sakura, her crying starting again.

"He doesn't hate you, Naruto is too nice to hate anyone, let alone you." reassured Ino

"You weren't there Ino. He stood as far away from me as possible and the only time he so much as looked towards me... His eyes were like the fires of hell..." stated Sakura.

"Why that little... Don't worry Sakura. My shift is over and were closing for the day, but I'll go talk to Naruto, I'm sure that this is all a big misunderstanding." stated Ino as she walked Sakura out of the shop and locked the door behind her. "Now go get some rest, you look like you haven't slept in days. I'll sort everything out with Naruto, I was going to see him anyway."

"Thanks Ino..." mumbled Sakura as she walked towards her home.

'I doubt that he could ever hate you Sakura. And I'll prove it... And maybe get a hot boy toy as a bonus.'

* * *

-Hokage office-

"So you refused to teach them anything of value until their teamwork improved, took a C-rank thinking they would improve, and then when you found out that you were out of your league you pressed on anyway. To make matters worse, you come away from the C turned A-rank mostly unharmed and believe that they are strong enough to take the Chunin exams. You forsake naruto and stick him with a teacher that you know is publicly against him, train Sasuke in a stolen taijutsu style and then you teach him an A-rank assassination Jutsu. Do I have all of that correct?" questioned Sarutobi, his voice cold, his eyes hard.

"Sir, I only taught Sasuke that move so that he could defeat Gaara." stated Kakashi

"Bullshit. There were a hundred ways you could have taught that brat to beat him. Genjutsu, Water Jutsu, hell you could have taught him that eye trick that you figured out. You were playing favorites. You wanted Sasuke to win the finals, what better way than to teach him a jutsu that many genin wouldn't use properly, then make it so he would either face his own stunted teammate or a close range fighter that would be weak against your student." stated Jiraiya

"That's not true! Naruto should have never beaten Neji in the first place. He was hiding his strength, how was I suppose to know he was really high chunin level?" stated Kakashi

"You disappoint me Kakashi. Even if Naruto was weak, it's your job to make him stronger. If you had done nothing, just turned him loose with a shitty instructor, I would agree that you did something right. But you gave him to a man who hated him then go and teach your 'strongest' student one of your best ninjutsu. You were playing favorites." stated Jiraiya as he got up and moved to the window "He's my student now. It's up to him if you can still talk to him. By the way, if you teach that Uchiha any of Minato's Jutsu, I will kill you and that Uchiha."

* * *

-With Sasuke-

'Damn that Dobe! I deserve that power! How was he able to increase his speed so much in a month? And when did he gain Zabuza's sword? I know we left that in Wave. He also knows all those jutsu he didn't before! And I can't copy them. Everytime I try to use one of them I end up losing control of the jutsu!' shouted Sasuke mentally as he shoved another chidori into the training post. 'I am going to kill that Dobe! Then I'm going to Orochimaru. If the Dobe improved that much under a Sannin, then I'll grow tenfold, and then Itachi will fall at my feet. I won't even need to take Danzo up on his offer.'

* * *

-Oto-

"Damn that Uzumaki brat..." stated Orochimaru as he read over the reports of the invasion. "Foolish. Suna losses a quarter of their forces and their Kage. Perhaps I will send Kabuto to get some more test subjects?"

'That Uzumaki brat needs to be dealt with. If he's anything like his father, he will be a thorn in my side. I'll have the sound four kill him when they go get Sasuke.'

* * *

-Naruto-

Naruto was now sitting in his basement, looking at a seal on the wall. He had just gotten home from meeting the sword couple, Yugao and Hayate. He remembered Hayate from the preliminaries, he never would have thought the coughing Proctor would be the foremost kenjutsu expert in the village, but then again, first impressions we're rarely accurate. After Tenzo had informed him that the two would be training him in their off time, Naruto had been ecstatic, but now that he thought about it, he wasn't too sure. 'Pervy sage said something about a training trip, if I'm not here, how can they train me?'

"Whoever made this was a genius..." mumbled Naruto as he looked at the seal that covered most of the back wall of the small house. The basement was actually a small library and office space that was lit by seals that simulated natural sunlight. There was a small corner dedicated to what Naruto figured to be taijutsu training, though there was only one dummy, and not much room to move around in. 'It looks like a blood seal, I bet mom stored all kinds of great stuff in here!''

Naruto bit his thumb and smeared the blood over the center of the seal. With a low grumble, the back wall started to sink down, allowing Naruto to see what it had hidden "No way... But that would mean my dad was-"

* * *

-Unknown-

Danzo sat quietly in the dark room that was his base. An blank mask ANBU arrived and bowed before him, waiting for his orders. "What have you found?"

"Sir, the Hokage is not suspecting you in this invasion, though master Jiraiya has informed him that he wishes to take the Kyuubi container with him when he leaves the village again." stated the ANBU.

"What of the Uchiha?" questioned Danzo

"He has been training. He is very adept with the Hatake's Chidori." stated the Root agent "We have witnessed Kabuto of Oto spying on him."

"Distract Kabuto and seal off Sasuke's memories of me. I don't want Orochimaru finding out that I have offered him training." stated Danzo, he watched the man before him about to leave in a blur and motioned to wait. "I must obtain the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and bring him here. Make sure that Jiraiya is not around when you do so... Actually, I'll just call a meeting with Hatake, Hiruzen and Jiraiya, then that brat will be wide open. Dismissed."

* * *

(Red, green, yellow, blue. read and review or ill kill you!... not really, do what you want.)


	7. Chapter 7: Nurses and ANBU

Disclaimer: im on Facebook! like my page! Jiraiya's Lost Student

* * *

"No way... But that would mean my dad was... The Fourth..." stated Naruto in disbelief as he looked around the unsealed room, three prong kunai hung around the room, a sword was hanging on the back most wall, a large red and gold scroll sat on a pedestal beneath the sword, two smaller one on each side of the large one, the left one was gold, the one on the right was blue. The room was an armory and library that was built by his hero and he was now in awe at finding out he was the man's son.

The room itself was nearly the size of the whole basement, waist high racks of books and scrolls lined the walls and the center of the room was ten foot diameter sealing array that seemed to shimmer the air around it.

'What is that? It's not a containment seal...' pondered Naruto as he inspected the oversized array. 'There's ten expansion seals around the parameter and a bilateral gravity seal in the middle... But then why are there resistance seals linked with both the gravity seal and the...' He was seriously going to have to thank Jiraiya for teaching him how to at least recognize the advanced aspects in sealing, as he doubted that he would even know what those seals were otherwise.

"No... No way in hell... The fourth... My dad... Made a self contained gravity room..." stated Naruto, summoning a shadow clone and having it move to the center of the seal. Naruto watched as the clone walked into the seal circle, moving slower and slower, only for the clone to crumple to the floor and poof out of existence once it reached the middle. Naruto sat shocked at the memory's the clone sent back. 'The gravity increase is ridiculous, its like the gravity seals that tenzo told me about, only the whole area is like that. And it's way bigger from the inside, almost a hundred feet across instead of the ten that I see from here... I wonder-'

**"No. You're in no shape to enter that seal array, you have torn muscles all over your limbs and most of your body is strained otherwise, its a miracle that you can even move right now. Going in a high gravity environment such as that is asking to end up like your friend in green after my sibling got through with him."**

'Fine. Way to ruin my fun.' responded Naruto as he walked around the seal and up to the pedestal where the three scrolls sat. 'Might as well read the small gold one first. Maybe this was one of dad's...'

* * *

-Kiri-

"Well I'll be damned" stated Ao, reading over an intelligence report that just came in from one of their spies. "Mei-sama. You were correct to let that boy keep the Kubikiribocho. Seems he's already made a name for himself."

"Really. How so?" questioned Mei, her interest peaked when the young blonde was mentioned. Said blonde had been on her mind quite a bit lately, though she wasn't sure why.

"The boy beat a Hyuuga prodigy in outstanding fashion before defeating the One Tailed Jinchuuriki by using a mixture of silent killing, mind games, and I quote 'the densest Hidden Mist Jutsu' our informant has ever seen. Says he also summoned a giant toad to help when the one tail container fully transformed, though it wasnt gamabunta, it says he was equal in height." stated Ao "Though I doubt the boy can actually do all of that. After all, he is just a genin, even Kakashi Hatake wasnt that skilled at that age, and i doubt he is on par with Itachi Uchiha."

"Don't doubt him Ao. Before I even gave him a scroll, he was jonin level speed and strength. There's no telling what that boy will accomplish in the years to come." stated Mei, her thoughts going back to her first time meeting the young man, and the literal ease he was able to throw zabuzas sword around.

"Well, perhaps we should recruit him to join us then." joked Ao, Not even remotely serious about doing just that.

"It's not a bad idea..."

* * *

-Council chambers-

"Why are we here? And where are those idiot civilians?" questioned Tsume Inuzuka

"Danzo has called this meeting." stated Sarutobi simply, Not wanting to give anything away, even though he was sure it was about Narutos promotion, or sasukes lack thereof.

"So why don't you fill us in old man. What could be so important that you would call a full military council meeting?" questioned Jiraiya, who stood behind Sarutobi. Danzo frowned at the disrespect the toad sannin always treated him with.

"It has come to my attention that the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki not only can use the beasts chakra, but also has been promoted to Special Jonin, Has been removed from Team Seven and is now your apprentice, Jiraiya. I wish to inquire why the council wasn't informed." stated Danzo, his face staying impassive.

"Who cares? The kid beat a jinchuuriki and can use not only three of The Hidden Mists most well known jutsu, but can also use one of their legendary swords. the only question i have is why he wasn't made jonin. I fail to see why there was a council meeting called over this." questioned Shukaku, his head never moving from its position on the table. The other clan heads all agreed with him, though the elders were visibly displeased with the lazy Naras comment.

"The council has been called because the boy possesses an eminent threat to the village. If he can use its chakra, then he can be influenced by it. If he can be influenced by it, then he could lose control of the beast and end up losing control entirely or worse, release it." stated Danzo, a small smirk played out on his lips.

"He's not being influenced by the beast. That seal is as strong as the day my former student put it on. I checked it this morning. Plus the fact that everyone in this room has already been informed of his Special Jonin status, as well as the advancement of both Shikamaru Nara and Shino Aburame." stated Jiraiya, his eyes narrowed at the seemingly crippled old man. "The only reason we are all here is so you can make a play to gain control of him"

Danzo was about to retort when a loud explosion sounded from the west side of the village. In an instant, both Jiraiya and Sarutobi were out the doors, both the same thought in mind. 'That came from Naruto.'  
'Damn. they may get there before my men have a chance to grab the boy.'

* * *

-With Naruto-

Sarutobi and Jiraiya arrived to find Naruto was covered in blood, unconscious on the ground outside his house. There was a clear path where a line of trees had been vaporized, as well as what remained of five bodies littered around the young blonde, two missing heads, one missing his left leg with narutos sword run through his chest and two that had been cut in half.

"What the fuck happened here?" questioned Jiraiya as he observed the area around his godson before moving to Naruto's side and checking his vitals, which thankfully, we're normal. "it looks like none of this blood is his, though there is no way to be sure. i'll take him to the hospital."

"ANBU!" commanded Sarutobi. In less than a second, four ANBU had appeared around the old man. "Seal the village and nobody enters this immediate area. I want the bodies taken to Inoichi and Ibiki. This area must be searched for any wounded that could answer our questioning. Then I want this entire area cataloged for any other clues. This attack on Naruto's life can't be a coincidence after the Chunin Exams and I need to know who is responsible. Move!"

* * *

-With Naruto at hospital-

Naruto stir awake in the lumpy hospital bed. The moment he regained consciousness, he was out of the bed, up on his feet and his hands were flashing through handseals.

"Naruto! It's ok, you're safe. Stand down!" commanded Tenzo from the corner of the room, runing his own hand seals to restrain the blonde incase he couldnt calm him down.

The familiar voice brought Naruto back to reality. He realized that he was in a hospital room, in the room with him was Tenzo, mask on his face, and a young nurse that had probably been checking him for something, though she had a deep red blush in her face.

At some point during Naruto's jump from the bed to where he was now across the room, he had lost his hospital gown, and was now standing naked in his hospital room. Naruto felt the floor shift and a chest high wall emerged in front of him. The nurse shook her head and regained her composure.

"Y-Your vitals are normal, but your chakra network is strained heavily as well as most of your muscles." stated the nurse. Her blush increasing as she examined his body, Which was way to well developed to belong to a thirteen year old. "Also you're throat is very raw, so you should limit your talking. I-I don't know what happened to cause all these injuries, but you're a l-lucky man to be up so soon and you may worry someone sp-special if you don't take better care of yourself."

"How long till I can leave?" questioned Naruto, his voice hoarse.

"You're going to be stuck here for a while while you recover. I'll be sure to stop by and check on your recovery Naruto-kun." winked the nurse as she walked out of the room, swaying her hips, Making sure that the blonde hunk got a good view.

"That was weird..." stated Naruto, he then grabbed his hospital gown from the floor and got back into his lumpy hospital bed. "Where's the Old man and Pervy Sage? I need to tell them something."  
"Ill send for them, for now just get some rest, ill make sure nothing bad happens" stated tenzo with a hidden smirk 'Though with the looks that hot young nurse was giving you... NO bad Tenzo!... i need to stop being around Jiraiya sama so much..."

* * *

-Danzo-

"Explain." commanded Danzo as he looked down one of his Root ninja, laying in the medical bay of his base, right arm cut off at the shoulder, a group of med nin healing the stub.

"He... He isn't human... We had him surrounded when he just... Mist appeared faster than we anticipated. The last thing I remember before retreating was the captain ordering a retreat and then losing his leg, which was when I barely escaped." muttered the crippled ninja, his mind obviously still rattled from whatever the Uzumaki had done.

"Is there any way you can be traced back to us?" questioned Danzo, his tone still flat.

"No. Captain made sure we did everything as Code Six."

"Good. Once you're healed, report to the genetics lab and see what they can do." stated Danzo, turning and walking away. 'Damn, eight lower level ninja and a captain lost to that brat. And now Hiruzen may be suspicious of me. This is not good. Im going to need to see that report when its filed and make sure that nothing of value was found'

* * *

-With Naruto-

"Are you doing alright Naruto?" questioned Sarutobi, his voice laced with concern at seeing his newest special jonin hospitalized for the first time in six years

"Yea. I'm good. Who where those people who tried to abduct me though?" asked Naruto, his voice less hoarse that when he first woke up.

"What do you mean abduct you? Actually, just tell us the whole story." stated Jiraiya, Pulling out a different note pad, obviously wanting to miss any details that the blonde could give them

"Well, I was just leaving the house to see if I could talk to Gaara when..."

* * *

-Flashback-

"Naruto Uzumaki. You are to come with us." stated a blank masked ANBU that dropped down next to Naruto, almost immediately, nine more dropped down from the forest around him.

Naruto began making one-handed handseals with his left hand at speeds that few of the ANBU could keep up with yet none recognized, his right hand flew to his sword handle, and then he disappeared into an impossibly fast forming fog as he stated, "Hidden Mist Jutsu."

"Form a parameter!" shouted the captain. The unknown ANBU formed up in a circle. "Keep your head up! He can strike from anywhere!"

"Especially behind you..." came a phantom voice in the middle of the circle, killing intent freezing several of the ANBU. Most fled the circle, the unlucky two that didn't move in time were chopped in half. "You've made a terrible mistake. And now you will all die."

Naruto moved at his maximum speed not using Kurama's chakra. another fell to a lost limbs, two more lost heads. Finally the captain lost his leg. "Retreat!"

Naruto felt the remaining ANBU retreat, all in the same direction. 'Kurama! I need a range attack!'

**"Focus my chakra to your throat and burp."**

'Burp?'

**"Just do as I say!"**

Naruto built up a huge amount of Kurama's chakra in his throat, feeling it actually swell from the influx of demonic chakra. When he felt he couldn't hold any more, he opened his mouth and actually burped, a pillar of golden chakra exploded from his mouth, vaporizing the retreating ANBU and the forest around them.

With his last ounce of energy, Naruto threw his blade, impaling the captain through the chest as he attempted to escape despite losing one of his legs. Naruto then fell face first, unconscious. covered in blood and filled with pain.

* * *

-Flashback end-

"At first when you said it was they wanted abduct you, I figured this might have been a Kumo attempt much like what your mother went through in the past However after what you told us, I'd say this has Danzo written all over it. The timing of the meeting we were just in is too perfect to think otherwise. Gaki, as soon as you're healed we're going to leave, its time to start your real training trip." stated Jiraiya, giving his note pad to sarutobi and pulling out a scroll and jotting down locations he felt would be beneficial to his apprentice.

"Very well. In the meantime I will have Tenzo launch an investigation. Even if it wasn't Danzo, this was a wake up call."

* * *

-Next day-

Word had traveled fast of Naruto's hospitalization as well as him taking out several unknown ANBU. So far Team Eight and Team Gai had come by, both Kurenai and Gai had given him gifts for making jonin, Gai had somehow found a set of orange taijutsu sandals that had metal plates reinforcing the top and heels of his feet, as well as a list of holes that Gai had found in his fights with Neji and Gaara, for which Naruto had thanked him repeatedly. Kurenai had given him a scroll of several high chakra usage genjutsu that Naruto could actually use. At the end of the scroll Naruto found a picture of Kurenai in a very skimpy bikini. Thankfully he was alone when he found it, as he had passed out from a nosebleed. He needed to make sure that Pervy Sage never found that or he had a feeling Kurenai-sensei would make his life a living hell.

The remaining genin of Team Seven, Choji, and Asuma were on a mission while Shikamaru had stopped in after finishing the clan business that had kept him from going on said mission. The boy didn't know what Ino was doing, as she wasn't on a mission and she had yet to come visit him. Currently Naruto sat in his room, while the nurse from the day before was feeding him and giggling at the disgruntled look on the blondes face.

Just then Naruto sensed someone standing at the door. "And here i thought you forgot about me. What can I do for you Ino?"

* * *

-One week later-

Naruto stood at the Northern Gate, Jiraiya at his side, Team Gai, Team Eight, and Team Ten had already said their goodbyes. Ino and Kurenai both giving the young jonin a hug, though ino had taken it a step farther and giving Naruto a kiss on the cheek, Hinata and Kiba had wished him luck on his travels, Choji and Shikamaru had gotten the blonde a jumbo pack of ramen and Shino had simply nodded to him, though naruto could feel shinos turbulent emotions, as well as hear his hive buzzing louder. Now Sasuke and Sakura stood before Naruto.

"See you when you get back Naruto." said Sakura. She gave him a hug and whispered into his ear. "Thank you for forgiving me. I know you told ino that you didnt hate me, but i know that on some level you did, and im sorry."

"It's not in me to hate a teammate, I told ino the truth, and im telling you that its ok." stated Naruto, returning the hug. Suddenly Naruto pulled his sword off of his back and chopped Jiraiya's notebook in half. "Don't you use us in your smut Pervy sage!"

"You're no fun Gaki." stated Jiraiya with a pout, pulling out another note pad and transferring his precious research

"Sasuke. How are you doing?" questioned Naruto, who had gotten the chance to read the mission report and found out that Sasuke had gotten his first kill on the mission he just got back from.

"Don't you worry about me Dobe. I'd be worried about falling behind me." stated Sasuke with a smirk, though Naruto could feel his emotions swirling violently. 'Just you wait dobe. by the time you get back orochimaru will have made me stronger than you could ever be... Then ill finally be strong enough to kill my brother '

"You're on Sasuke. Just don't die on me." stated Naruto. "I'll see everyone when I get back."

Jiraiya and Naruto turned and made their way down the road away from the village, the glare off of Narutos sword blinding the group as disappeared into the distance.

* * *

-Oto-

"You are to go to Konoha, obtain Sasuke Uchiha and kill Naruto Uzumaki. You first priority is Sasuke, he must be brought here, no matter what. If you run across the Uzumaki kill him." stated Orochimaru. Before him stood the Sound Four. "You cannot be caught. Kill anyone who finds you, do not draw unnecessary attention."

"Hai, Master!" responded all of the sound four before taking off on their two day journey.

"Sir, are you sure it was wise to send them? None of them are above high chunin in speed and none of them are good enough to face Uzumaki unless they use the second level of the curse seal, and even then only Kidomaru can fight without his eyes.", stated a worried Kabuto, knowing full well how dangerous a swordsman that wielded a sword and the jutsu of the mist could be.

"I think you overestimate him Kabuto. After all, he is a genin, maybe chunin. He has no real power." stated Orochimaru, scoffing at the very thought of Minatos brat being stronger than his personal guards. 'Even if the brat is strong enough to kill one of them, i can just send kimimaro."

"Sir... Did you read the latest report?" questioned Kabuto carefully, not wanting to anger his master, yet wanting to make sure he knew all the risks that the blonde possed.

"Why would there be a new report?" questioned Orochimaru dangerously, his eyes narrowing at his most trusted subordinate.

"Well sir... Our spy reports that the Uzumaki is a Special Jonin now... And he's leaving with Jiraiya to train..."

* * *

-Iwa-

In an old run down building on the south side of the village, Several Councilmen and high ranking jonin were meeting about an issue of grave importance. at least to them in was important.  
"I beleive you all know why you are here today. that old fence sitter has decided that we should forget the past and just overlook the fact that that bastard Minato Namikaze has a son." stated an elderly councilmen, hate evident in his voice.

"I say we hunt the little bastard down and kill him. our village sufferd enough with what that monster did to all our families, lets get back at him by killing his only kid!" shouted a vertan jonin.

"Theres a problem, hes exremely powerful. he was able to defeat a hyuuga in hand to hand combat and has zabuza momochis blade, plus hes the container of the kyuubi, and can use its power. he even defeated the one tail with its power and summoned Gamaken, which means that he is being trained by jiraiya of the sannin." stated an informant that was at the chunin exams.

everyone paused at that information, if the kid could summon gamaken, then he was no doubt being trained by jiraiya of the sannin, and would most likely be close by whenever they decided to attack.  
"Were going to need Han and Roshi..."

* * *

(Read and review!)


	8. Chapter 8: Valley of the End: Part One

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any perverted actions or thoughts made by Jiraiya, Kakashi or Kurenai.

* * *

-Five days later, valley of the end-

Naruto and Jiraiya had not made much progress, Naruto was working on his chakra control and wind manipulation with clones while he himself was working lightly on reflexes, speed and the Rasengan. In the meantime Jiraiya was working out how to maximize Naruto's training, as they had just made it to the border of Rice country earlier in the day. They were moving slow for the time being, as Jiraiya wanted Naruto to be as combat ready as possible before they moved into Rice country. Hunting down Orochimaru and any information about his activities would be complicated if Naruto was still slowed down by injuries.

"Hey Pervy Sage?" Called out Naruto from his spot on the head of the first Hokage statue, thinking that maybe sitting on the head of the mammoth statue, he would gain some of the mans knowledge. So far, nothing had happened.

"No gaki, I'm not teaching you any more until you can form a complete Rasengan. And I don't have any more tips for you." Stated Jiraiya from the edge of the cliff next to the falls, a scroll in his left hand and a brush in his right.

"Why does everyone call you a Sage?" Questioned Naruto as he looked back at the empty balloon in his hand.

Jiraiya was silent for a minute, unsure of how to answer the question. 'Well, that was unexpected...If I told him he would want to learn it. But would he need it? If he can fully harness the Kyuubi's' power than Sage mode won't help at all...' "Naruto, ask Kyuubi what he knows about Nature chakra and if his chakra could mix with it."

"...Alright..." responded a confused Naruto 'Hey Kurama? You hear that?'

\"Yes brat, I did. Get comfortable, this is going to take a while."

* * *

-Hokages office-

"You called for us Hokage-sama?" questioned Shikamaru as he and Shino walked into the office.

"Last night at roughly eleven o'clock, Sasuke Uchiha was reported to have left the village by Sakura Haruno. She did not say if he left of his own free will or if he was taken." stated Sarutobi, both of the boys eyes widened at the information. "I am assigning both of you as co-squad leaders. Your mission is to gather any available genin and chunin to assists in the recovery of Sasuke Uchiha. I have already sent for reinforcements from outside the village. Get a Hyuga and an Inuzuka squad member, as you will have to track him down. You will leave from the North gate in one hour. Dismissed."

"Hai." Both responded before darting out of the office.

'This is very troubling. There is only two places Sasuke would run to. Itachi or Orochimaru... I will have to Contact Itachi. If Sasuke falls into Orochimaru's hands, then the deal with Itachi will be null and void. Hopefully it does not come to that. But i must prepare in case it does.' thought Sarutobi gravely. "Boar. Bring me Danzo Shimura, now!"

* * *

-With Naruto-

Naruto had been in a trance for about half an hour when Jiraiya felt a presence above them. Looking up he saw a Konoha messenger eagle. Calling it down and sticking his arm out, the eagle descended, slamming into the Toad Sannin's arm. After a wince, Jiraiya took the scroll from it's leg and shooed the messenger bird away.

'I wonder why sensei sent an eagle? Did he come up with something regarding the attempt on Naruto?' wondered Jiraiya opened the scroll, his eyes widening at the information.

"Sasuke defected. Didn't he?" asked the blonde from his lotus position. He has felt the bird and then felt Jiraiya's emotions spike moments later. "I figured he would... Ever since the Chuinin exams he's been giving signals that he would... I was just too stupid to do anything about it..."

* * *

-With Sasuke-

"So I take those pills and it will give me full control of my seal?" questioned Sasuke, his suspicion of the five people in front of him being clouded by the desire of more power. After all, he was able to destroy those oto genin when he used the seal, it would no doubt make him stronger. 'That'll show the dobe. There's no way he will be able to beat me with this seal, then i can take on Itachi...'

"Yep. And because you have the Cursed Seal of Heaven, you will gain the biggest boost possible." stated Jirobo, his face passive.

"If you were, say... Mid Chunin level now, which I think you are, you will be roughly High Chunin with the first level, Low Jonin in speed and strength when you activate the second." stated Karin, a red headed, red eyed girl that had yet to take her eyes off of Sasuke.

"Shut up bitch." stated Tayuya under her breath, tired of the girl that in her eyes was as useless as an ice cube in an ocean.

"Ladies shouldn't swear Tayuya..." stated Jirobo kindly.

"Fuck off fatso!"

* * *

-Oto-

"You sent for me?" questioned Kimimaro as he moved slowly into the room.

"Yes. Orochimaru-sama has ordered that you be ready in case the Sound Four fails to retrieve Sasuke." stated Kabuto, who had been working on a side project.

"They will not fail. You have told me that the Uchiha was Mid Chunin level. They are all High Chunin." stated Kimimaro, sitting down against the wall next to the door.

"True, but Konoha will no doubt send a retrieval team. Plus there is little to no chance that his ex-teammate won't try to help the retrieval team." stated Kabuto, his inner hate for the blonde haired jonin showing through slightly. 'Stupid brat, he completely rendered all information on himself useless... Was he hiding all of his talents... Or has he actually grown this quickly?'

"The one who foiled the invasion attempt. I will be ready if needed." stated Kimimaro as he stood up and returned to his room. 'If we ever do fight Naruto Uzumaki, you will die by my hand for ruining master Orochimaru's plans'

'Good. The Sound Four might fall to him, but Kimimaro is more than a match for him...' thought Kabuto happily as he added two vials together. 'But why send Kimimaro? He is already in failing health. There are plenty of others I could send, after all, Karin is already with them...'

* * *

-With Shikamaru and Shino-

Shikamaru and Shino stood with their backs to the North gate, in front of them stood Ino, Choji, Neji, and Kiba.

"Ok, as of right now, we are on an A, possibly S-Rank retrieval mission to capture Sasuke Uchiha, who left under unknown circumstances last night during the guard shift change at eleven o'clock. That gives them an eleven hour lead." stated Shikamaru. "I say capture, because we don't know for certain whether he willingly left or if he was taken. Therefore we must go under the worst case scenario that he will attack us." the Nara continued drawing looks of concern from his team.

"It would be best if we streamlined our operations. Kiba should lead, as he and Akamaru have the best sense of smell as well as tracking skills." stated Shino, "From there will we go into a Cross formation, as I have discussed with Shikamaru."

"As Shino said, we will go into Cross formation. This will have Shino and I side by side protecting Ino in the center. She will be our medical support and it will be vital to ensure her safety whenever possible. Also from this position Shino and I will be able to extend orders to the following members while Shino and Kiba can communicate do to their extensive history and teamwork. Behind us will be Choji, as our best all around fighter, he will be able to respond in any direction needed. Neji will hold the rear and scan with his bloodline to insure that we won't be ambushed." finished Shikamaru.

"So there sending two Chunin and four genin on an A-Rank mission?" questioned Neji. 'This could be problematic. The Nara and Aburame are decent, as well is the Inuzuka, but it might not be enough...'

"We will have prepared at least one wave of support, though two is likely. The first wave is thought to be 12 hours away while the second is approximately twenty." stated Shikamaru.

"Who is our support?"

* * *

-Iwagakure Outskirts-

"What's it say Kakashi?" Questioned Asuma, his body tense. 'Dad sent an eagle. We only use those for urgent information...'

"My student has left the village... We are to meet a retrieval team and pursue." Stated Kakashi, disappointment in his voice.

"Why would we need to retrieve Naruto? He's a jonin and with Jiraiya." Stated Kurenai. 'He better not show Jiraiya that picture... Actually, maybe he should... Me and Naruto in one of those books...'

"It's not Naruto... Lets get going."

* * *

-Naruto-

"So they are on there way to the hidden village that you believe Orochi-Teme setup?" questioned Naruto. "They would almost half to pass by this location to get there, unless they want to go all the way to Bird country first..."

"More or less, there are some secret passages that me and your father made for the third war to outflank Iwa, but there probably overgrown by now. This crossing point is the best to cross at, so they'll probably..." Jiraiya paused "Use your senses, there about a half mile away and moving slowly."

Naruto nodded and drew on Kurama's chakra, just enough to sense negative emotions at the range Jiraiya had said they were at. "Either five or six people, four are mid chunin, one is low chunin and I believe there is another that may be mid genin, but I can't tell for sure as they have very little negative emotions to them."

"Good work gaki, though I would say that there are five mid chunin and one high genin, but I have more experience. Now what do you sense about them?" Questioned Jiraiya as he observed his student and continued to sit still to maintain the small flow of nature chakra he was collecting.

"All but the lower small one have heavy negative emotions, though the small one is chaotic, so they are either frightened or really exited." Stated Naruto.

"Very good gaki. Now, you're back to full health, right?"

* * *

-Ten minutes later-

Naruto stood alone on the head of Hashirama Senju's statue at the Valley of the End, channeling a small amount of demonic chakra to track the incoming group of ninja. Though he was focused on his task, his thoughts were split.

'So. You can use nature chakra, but you can't use sage mode because as a chakra beast, you can't regulate the three chakra types?' thought Naruto as he pondered what Kurama had just told him.

"**That's the gist of what I just explained.**" Stated Kurama tiredly. "**Now kit, these people are not like the Anbu that you killed, from what I can tell, they fight with power and speed, much like the spandex boy.**"

'Thats good, as I have speed and power. As long as I can avoid them, they can't use their power.' Thought Naruto as he kept focused on the incoming group.

"**That is true, but for them to take the Uchiha, they have to be good. It's much harder to capture someone unharmed than it is to kill someone. And if that brat left by choice, then this group must either have outstanding skills, or a very powerful leader.**"

'So I should watch out for any tricks they might have and keep on my guard.' Thought Naruto.

"**You should always do that. But save your chakra, the less you use the longer you can fight, and versus multiple opponents, that's critical. Only use the hidden mist jutsu and and the blade. Keep my chakra as a last option. Your body has recovered and now you're just as strong as you were when you fought Shukaku's host.**"

'Got it. They should be coming out right... Now!'

* * *

-Sound four-

"There's one, no, two presences up ahead." Stated Karin. "One of the chakra signatures is Kage in size, the other is... Wow, I have never felt so much..."

"Kage chakra levels? Bull shit. Lord Orochimaru has Kage chakra levels. The only person around here that has that much fucking chakra is Jiraiya of the Sannin." Stated Tayuya. "And what the fuck kind of evaluation is 'I've never felt so much'? What are we talking here? Jonin?"

"No, the first is definitely Kage in size. And the other one is... Well if the Kage was a pond, then the other one is an ocean." Stated Karin.

"We should go around. There's no reason to fight them if they aren't looking for a fight. And if red eyes over here is right, they're way stronger than us, and we have to protect the kid in this barrel until he revives." stated the Six armed man known as Kidomaru, who was holding a giant barrel on his back.

"You pussy. We're Orochimaru's personal guards. Even if the bitch is right, I guarantee that they're not stronger than all of us." stated Sakon. "We are fighting them and we are going to kill them. I missed my chance at that Uzumaki brat and there's no way I'm going to miss this."

"Too late now, they're in this upcoming clearing." stated Karin with an amount of fear in her voice. She may be new to sensing, but she had been taught personally by Kabuto and Orochimaru, and she had never felt chakra as massive and as powerful as this.

"That's the border, we'll kill this guy and be safe from any more trash trying to catch up to us." Stated Sakon.

* * *

-Valley of the End-

The sound four burst into the clearing, the red headed girl trailing slightly behind. They all stared at the man standing atop the head of the Hashirama Senju's statue.

"I don't believe my luck! This is the guy Kabuto told us to kill!" Shouted Sakon as he dropped into a battle stance.

"This twerp? This is the kid that four eyes told us to kill? Bullshit!" Stated Tayuya as she looked at the kid who seemed to be staring at all of them at once.

"Where is Sasuke Uchiha? If you turn him over to me, you will be able to leave this battle unharmed." Stated Naruto with authority and confidence.

"This trash? Beat us? That's a laugh, I could beat you with Five arms tied behind my back kid!" Shouted the spider like Kidomaru.

"Wait, he is wearing a jonin vest. Are you sure this is the target?" Questioned Jirobo, he didn't like this, being this close he could actually feel the power this man put off, it was like Kimimaro.

"Hey, Fatso is right! Orochimaru said that the kid was a genin, chunin at the most. This isn't the guy we were assigned to kill." Stated Tayuya.

Suddenly, a strong killing intent covered the area. Karin fell to her knees, not used to such power, though the members of the Sound Four managed to stand their ground, if a little shaken.

"You think you can threaten my life and get away with it? I know who you are. You are the people Sasuke left with. It's my duty as a Tokubetsu Jonin to either return him to the village, or kill him. Whether or not you are taken down as well is your option." Stated Naruto.

"Oh? A Tokubetsu Jonin? He's nothing but a chunin with a few tricks." Laughed Sakon.

"I'd say more that a few...Hidden Mist Jutsu." Stated Naruto as the clearing they were centered in was overtaken by outrageously thick mist that even made it hard for Karin to locate the other chakra signatures.

"What the fuck? That four eyed bastard didn't say anything about this? Neither did Orochimaru." Stated Tayuya loudly. 'Thank god my jutsu work by sound, otherwise I'd be next to useless.'

"Everyone! Group up and face outward! Kidomaru! Set up a net! Jirobo, set up a wall!" Shouted Sakon as he and the other four moved into a ring around the barrel containing Sasuke. 'This isn't good, I hate to say it, but I'm not good at fighting at range, or when I can't see my opponent.'

Seconds started adding up while they waited, tensed and ready to strike. They had prepared for situations like this, but what they weren't prepared for, was nothing.

The nothingness continued for what seemed like hours, though in reality it was only a minute. The sound shinobi continued to grow more wary as time moved on, attempting to hear their opponent move, only to find that they couldn't hear anything. That is until, Naruto made his move.

'Sclech' 'Thump' 'Thump'

Jirobo and Tayuya turned to their right and left respectively, only to find that Sakon was nowhere to be found. They both looked down, only to see in horror that their leader was now headless, crumpled to the ground. His head laying a foot behind his body.

'Shit! He got Sakon! Does that mean that Ukon is dead too?' Wondered Tayuya.

"_One, Two. I've already got one of you..._" The remaining group members eyes widened as the demonic sound reverberated from every direction at once.

"_Three, Four. He's on the Floor._" Tayuya began to panic, her specialty was sound genjutsu, and she had absolutely no idea what this was, she had never felt anything like it before. Then, the killing intent increased.

"_Five. Six. Lets throw some blood in the mix._"

"AHHHH!" Shouted out Kidomaru as his stomach was split open, nearly cutting him in half. He acted quickly, using his silk to stitch the wound together while he lay motionless on the ground, pretending to me dead. He had felt his web move ever so slightly, which allowed him to back up just enough as to not be cut in half.

"_Seven. Eight. Death is your fate._" Another swipe found its ways to the back of Karin's legs, severing her hamstrings, though missing anything vital.

Karin did her best not to scream out, though she ended up letting out a choked sob of pain as she started to repair her own legs, while leaning over and helping Kidomaru patch himself up.

"_Nine... _**TEN!**" Everyone heard the blade slice into a body, though there was no scream, no cry, or even a whimper.

Tayuya turned to see the now dead body of ukon, split down the middle, one side landing to the right of Sakon, the other laying over the top of him, a silent scream etched into both sides of his face, blood coating the ground around the dead parasitic twins.

"Fatass! He got both of them! Go to level two and grab the crate, we have to get out of this mist!" Shouted Tayuya as she began unleashing her curse mark. Her skin was overtaken by black markings that moved in slithering patterns before they began to fade away, staining her skin dark orange, almost brown as she began growing horns around her body.

Jirobo had an identical transformation, although his hair had grown longer and his skin was hard and jagged. He grabbed the barrel and began moving, only to notice that the mist was being forced away by the chakra he and Tayuya were outputting.

'There dissipating my mist with pure chakra? How is that possible? Are they jinchuuriki? No, the chakra isn't right, it's too controlled and dark to be a jinchuuriki... Curse marks!' Thought Naruto as he released the mist, it wouldn't do any good if they could just blow it away. 'Alright... What's my next move?'

* * *

-With the retrieval team-

"Huh? What is it boy?" Questioned kiba as he led the group after the the sound four. Akamaru whined in fear and snuggled deeper into kiba's jacket, still shivering violently. "Hey guys, Akamaru said that there's a huge battle up ahead. He says there's a bunch of blood in the air too."

"Did the support squad cut them off?" Questioned Ino, slightly out of breath from the rapid pace they were keeping.

"Not possible. The jonin were in earth country, that's half a days run at jonin speed and the unspecified group would have had to cover too much ground to be there right now. No, someone else got to them before us." Stated Shikamaru.

"My insects have detected traces of water chakra about ten miles ahead of us. Also, there is a great chakra presence in that battle. Estimates are between high jonin and high kage, though I only have experience with Sandaime-Sama and Naruto to base this on." Stated Shino.

"Could it be Naruto? I mean, he left with Jiraiya-Sama five days ago, and they left in this direction." Stated Choji.

"It's possible, Naruto's reserves were outstandingly large during our fight. Unfortunately, my Byakugan can not see that far, though there is a slowly dissipating cloud of chakra in the sky about twenty five miles ahead." Added neji, straining his eyes to further enhance the distance he could see.

"Let's speed up, if that estimate is correct, were about an hour away from them at our current speed." States Shikamaru, who was busy trying to figure out the possible options of who could be holding the group back.

Ino though, was thinking about her fellow blonde. 'Naruto-kun, please be safe...'

* * *

-With Jiraiya-

'You've done good Gaki. Real good. By taking out the parasitic duo, you've eliminated their apparent leader. Though that red eyed girl seems to have already healed herself. Seems she's an Uzumaki, and that other red head seems to be one as well, or at least half of one.' Thought Jiraiya as he stood on a branch high above the clearing, suppressing his chakra to the point of nonexistence. 'What are you gonna do now kid?'

* * *

-Back with Naruto-

"I'll ask again. Where is Sasuke Uchiha." Demanded Naruto as he placed his sword in his right hand, While he hid his left hand in his cloak.

"Well, if you really need to know, trash, he's in the barrel." Stated Tayuya, her vocal confidence returning with her curse mark activated to level two.

"Kidomaru, what's your status?" Questioned Jirobo.

Another influx of power drew Naruto's attention as his eyes gazed over at the spider like man and the red headed girl. He watched as the spider man rose to his feet, one of his left arms guarding where Naruto had slashed, his skin turned dark brown while his eyes turned pure black, the redhead who had been healing him was now behind the group.

'Hmm. Red hair and talent for healing, and I don't feel a great deal of negative emotions coming from her. I'll try to capture her, if she's an Uzumaki, she might be one of last ones. And spider boy seems to have recovered fairly well, though he is still guarding that slash mark.' Observed Naruto as he scanned the area. 'Sasuke is in the barrel, so there actually is a chance he was taken... I'll kill the other three and leave the redhead and Sasuke.'

"I'll be fine, my level two healed everything that red eyes didn't, though its pretty sore." Stated Kidomaru as he moved next to the remaining sound four. 'Damn it! This trash almost ended me, and he got Sakon and ukon... This is bad, if we mess up at all, were dead.'

"So you still plan on fighting me, even though I've taken out two of you?" Questioned Naruto. 'Their chakra is like Sasuke's was in the forest of death, only more potent. Which means that they're going to be faster and stronger. I might need Kurama on this one, but I'm going to try to get at least one of them before that.'

"No shit, Trash. In this form, were unstoppable!" Stated Kidomaru, who then spit out a bow and arrow. 'This guy can use Zabuza Momochi's sword, which means he must be incredibly strong, though probably not as strong as Jirobo. Plus he can use the sword while moving around silently, which no doubt means that he has great physical control, and most likely very good at using chakra to both enhance his speed and cushion his feet. I don't know how fast he is, but with Sakon and Ukon gone, we are probably at a disadvantage.'

"I'll crush you." Stated Jirobo as he darted forward, his curse mark fueling him.

To Naruto, it looked like he was moving in slow motion, high chunin maybe. For most people, he appeared to be a blur, but Naruto wasn't most people he was used to low to mid jonin just from training, not to mention his sparring matches with Tenzo and Jiraiya.

Naruto ducked under a punch and sent a right hook to Jirobo's gut. Even without his Kurama enhancements, it still did the job, Jirobo was stopped dead in his tracks. Even if the hit hadn't hurt the large ogre like man, it stopped his momentum. Naruto spun behind him, slicing at the large mans back, earning a deep gash that crossed from Jirobo's left shoulder blade to his right hip.

Naruto didn't give the others time to act as he moved as fast as he could, approaching the spider like Kidomaru. He held his blade to the side ready to finish him off when Kidomaru held up his bow and arrow, firing it at the blonde's chest, only for Naruto to deflect it to his left with the flat of his sword.

Kidomaru cursed and began producing another arrow, but wasn't able to by the time Naruto had gotten within range and delivered a vertical slash, just missing the spider like man as he dodged to his right, only for Naruto to stick the blade in the ground and swing horizontally around the handle, kicking him in the face.

"Summoning technique! Doki!" Shouted Tayuya as she slammed her hand into the ground. A flash of smoke later revealed three massive ogre like creatures, each had their eyes covered, ears covered and mouths sewn shut.

"Summoning technique! Kyodaigumo!" Shouted Kidomaru, now standing on top of a giant black spider with red markings all over it.

Jirobo looked on in anger, his back split and his spinal cord destroyed from the slash. He was next to useless now and he had reverted back to normal, not able to physically handle his curse mark any more. 'I'm done. But at least I can get one last shot at that blonde prick.'

"Kinjutsu: Earth golem bomb!" Naruto heard the shout and became wary, he knew for a fact that Kinjutsu was bad news. He and the other moved far away as earth started to build around the large man and compact down to rock. "Boom!"

The rock covered body exploded, sending rock shrapnel rocketing everywhere. Kidomaru had heard the name of the jutsu and shot a net in front of the giant spider, keeping him and the spider free from harm. Tayuya commanded her Doki to take the hit. Each took a few injuries, but not enough to dispel them.

Naruto had hidden behind his blade, which withstood the barrage, but had a few dings and a large chip in it now. 'Its had worse, hell, I almost snapped it in half when I tried to block Pervy sage's rasengan before the finals.' "That's two down. If you give me Sasuke and the girl with red eyes, you two will be spared."

"What do you want with me?" Questioned the red eyed girl loudly. 'Does he want to violate me?'

"You have skill in healing. You could be a valuable asset to the village. Plus you are most likely an Uzumaki, like the other red head. That just so happens to be the clan I'm trying to rebuild." Stated Naruto. 'If I can remove her from the fight, there's a better chance for me to win, I won't have to worry about her healing them.'

"Clan?" Questioned Karin. 'But Orochimaru-Sama said that I wasn't from a clan, I'm an orphan.'

"We refuse your offer. We're more than enough to defeat you, Trash." Stated Tayuya as she started playing on her flute. The Doki sprung to life and headed straight at Naruto.

'Foolish.' Thought Naruto, who held his sword in front of him, horizontal to the ground. 'I hope this works, I've only managed to do this once. Wish me luck Asuma-sensei.' "Flying Swallow."

The Kubikiribocho began to shine bright blue before taking on a green tint, chakra extended from the end of the blade, coming to a point five feet from the end of the original blade, where the chakra ended. Naruto swung the now ten foot long sword as the Doki approached. The wind enhanced sword split the three Doki in half before they faded out of existence.

"It's time I finish this." Stated Naruto as the sword returned to normal. 'How much can I use, Kurama?'

"**Stick with fifteen percent, I know you can handle almost twenty five now, but that starts to break down your body, fifteen should be more than enough. Just make sure you end this quickly, even if you defeat them, there could be more coming.**" Stated Kurama.

'Got it.' Replied Naruto as he started glowing red. The red shifted lighter and lighter, growing until it resembled a dark orange cloak. "This. Ends. **Now!**"

'Holy shit! What jutsu is that? First he kills all my Doki in one move then he starts glowing fucking red and now he look like he's surrounded by red chakra?' Thought Tayuya, frozen in fear.

'Even the Kyodaigumo is afraid of him now. What is this red Chakra? Is it like our curse marks?' Thought Kidomaru, who was taken out of his musings as the blonde disappeared from sight. He looked around quickly, not even picking up movement.

Suddenly, Tayuya flew backwards, folded over to the point that her forehead was almost touching her knees. Standing where she had been was the blonde hair kid that they were told to kill, his leg still extended. Tayuya bounced and rolled to a stop, her body against a tree, the curse mark reseeding as she coughed up some blood and passed out.

'That was a kick? How strong is this guy? That would have broken a civilian in half!' "Kyodaigumo! Catch him in your web!" Shouted Kidomaru as he began looking for the blonde haired kid again.

The Giant Spider let out a horrible screech. Kidomaru looked down to see the blonde, his giant sword buried in the forehead of the Kyodaigumo, before the blonde pulled the blade out and retreated, waiting for the giant summon to dispel.

"You... You killed her... You killed Kyodaigumo!" Shouted Kidomaru in rage. His face gaining black lines, inadvertently forcing the curse seal to adapt a new level. "I'm going to kill you!"

'Well... That can't be good.' Thought Naruto as he tightened his grip on the sword.

'**Kit, I think that's a new level. His chakra output just increased and it stronger now. Be careful.**'

Kidomaru charged, his speed rocketing to mid jonin as he charged recklessly, all six fists coated in sticky spider gold, turning them into blades. He swiped at Naruto, aiming for the blondes head, missing as Naruto ducked under and slashed with the sword, only for it to parried by one of the arm blades.

Naruto jumped back, creating distance between the crazed spider man and himself. He placed his sword on his back and began planning. 'He's faster now. With six arms it's hard to maneuver around him, I'll have to use ninjutsu. I'll end it with one shot.'

"Shadow clone jutsu!" Shouted Naruto as two clones popped into position. Both clones nodded, already knowing the plan, and turned to their opponent. Naruto placed his hands on their backs and pumped some chakra into each clone as Kidomaru charged once again.

"Wind style! Cyclone Fist!"

"Water style! Great Collision Wave!"

With Naruto pushing Kurama's chakra into the clones and providing a mental link, the two jutsu were able to combine, resulting in a huge, devastating vortex that rocketed forward, tearing into the enraged Kidomaru, who hadn't been able to escape the vast area of the jutsu before it collided with him, catching him in the rapidly spinning water and smashing him into the tree line, uprooting and smashing through trees until the jutsu died down, leaving a disfigured mass of flesh in the new clearing.

The clones dispelled, leaving Naruto alone in the clearing, Kurama's chakra receding back into his body, along with the fatigued feeling of losing the chakra.

'There is no possible way he is getting up from that.' Thought Naruto as he moved to the barrel holding Sasuke.

Karin though that he was coming for her and started trembling in fear.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I meant what I said earlier. If you are an Uzumaki, we are from the same clan, and if not, you are still of use to the village, and it would be nice to have another friend." Stated Naruto kindly as he tried to open the barrel, only to find that it wouldn't budge. "Why won't this thing open?"

Karin was about to responded when her face turned pale. "Suigetsu!"

"What's a Suigetsu?" Questioned Naruto before he felt a presence behind him. He drew his sword and spun around, only to see a teen, roughly his own age. Purple eyes and white hair matched his purple shirt and white pants. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"Fool. The bitch just said my name. I'm Suigetsu Hozuki, and I want my sword."

* * *

(Damn, Someone call M. Night, we got ourselves a plot twist!)

(Alrighty people, Do you want Suigetsu to have a normal sword or one of the other five swords of the mist? obviously it cant be Samaheda or Kubikiribocho.)

(Read and review people! its a small price to pay for the genius that is my writing!)


	9. Chapter 9: Valley of the End: Part Two

Disclaimer: this has a NEVER BEFORE SEEN SURPRISE

* * *

"Fool. The bitch just said my name. I'm Suigetsu Hozuki, and I want my sword." Stated Suigetsu in annoyance. Hell, he was an infamous enough ninja, he was almost part of the seven swordsman, any jonin should know who he is.

"Where's your sword? I don't see it anywhere." Stated Naruto, acting dumb. 'This is my sword. Zabuza trusted me with it and I will guard it with my life.'

"The one on your back you little shit! I'm the next in line to that blade." snarled Suigetsu, radiating killer intent.

"He left it to me. I have the letter back home to prove it. But if you really want to see who deserves it more... Let's just see." stated Naruto as he drew the giant blade off his back, directing his own killer intent at the silver haired teen. 'Alright, I know nothing about this guy other than he really wants this sword. If he really was the next in line, then he must be one hell of a swordsman...'

'This brat can actually lift the Kubikiribocho after fighting against the sound four already? I guess he has some skill, but there's no way he's better than me!' thought Suigetsu, who unsealed a Claymore from a seal on his belt.

* * *

-With Jiraiya-

'Hmm, he beat the last group without much trouble. But this guy is in a league above the others... Jonin level chakra reserves and strong judging from the size of that claymore. Be careful gaki.' thought Jiraiya as he observed the group below him. 'The redhead is staying put, though she might just be guarding the barrel until Naruto is defeated or more help arrives. I know you've got a lot left in the tank kid, but I hope you conserve it. There's no telling what's going to happen.'

* * *

-Back to the fight-

"You're on brat! This claymore is the training sword for the Seven Swordsman, its made of the same metal as that sword in your hand! I'll take my sword back, then I'll kill you with it! And I'll do it using Zabuza's Jutsu!" shouted Suigetsu. "Hidden Mist Jutsu!"

Naruto could only smirk as he watched the mist roll in. He barely contained himself when he found he could still see his opponent. "Oh this brings back memories of when I first learned this Jutsu. Let me show you how it's really done."

Suddenly, the mist got much denser, so much so that Suigetsu felt like there was actual Weight being placed on top of him.

'What? How much chakra does he have? Even Mangetsu didn't have mist this thick!' Thought Suigetsu as he readied himself for the blondes eventual attack. He didn't have to wait long as instincts took over and he blocked a sweeping slash that would have taken his head off. 'I didn't even hear him! How is that possible?'

'So he can keep up with me in the mist. That's going to complicate things. If I don't have the advantage here, then I have to resort to ninjutsu, but Pervy sage told me to conserve energy until backup gets here.' Thought Naruto as he prepared his next attack.

"You might as well dismiss this mist. While you're good, I'm better." Taunted Suigetsu as he closed his eyes and tried to sense the blonde.

-_"If that were true, you wouldn't be telling me that. You are either lying, or an idiot."_ Stated Naruto from everywhere at once, once again pudding Suigetsu off.

"Come out and fight coward!" Shouted Suigetsu, trying to force his way through the images of Zabuza hunting him in the mist.

Absolute silence followed his shout. No sound at all. 'Wait... There should be at least some sound? Is this mist really thick enough to block out the outside sounds?'

He was take out of his musings when his danger senses went absolutely wacky, telling him that he was surrounded. Thinking quickly, Suigetsu reverted to water, Letting several slashes pass right through him. 'What the hell? There's only one of him? How did I get slashed by seven different blades?'

Meanwhile, Naruto was also reviewing what just happened. 'What? But not even Yamato can escape my Seven Clone Cut? The blades just passed right through him... like he was made out of water?' -"What jutsu was that? I haven't seen anything like it before?" Questioned Naruto as he resumes his predatory position, which was actually right behind Suigetsu.

"That's because it wasn't a jutsu! That's my bloodline." Stated Suigetsu arrogantly, his confidence returning. "I can draw power from the water around me. With enough of it, I can even regenerate."

'That doesn't make any sense. I've kept him right there, so he couldn't have gotten any water from the valley, and any water around here is laced with my chakra, which would be too potent for his body to use. That must mean that his entire body is already water, or can turn into water... In any case, I need to get rid of this mist, if I can see him, I can figure out just how to defeat his bloodline.' Thought Naruto as he slowly absorbed the chakra back into himself, drawing the mist away from his opponent. 'If he can truly absorb water for health, then maybe I can hurt him with fire attacks... But all I know is some low level ones and I need Kurama for my big one...'

'Shit! He's actually removing the mist. Now I need a new water source.' Thought Suigetsu as he prepared to launch an attack at the blonde.

A sudden influx of chakra caught both their attention as they simultaneously turned their heads to the source, their eyes landing on Sasuke, who had at some point escaped the barrel and now was covered in a pattern of black flames and standing over the downed form of Karin. Unfortunately, this was also the time when the Retrieval squad entered the clearing.

"Dobe... Finally! I'll finally prove I'm better than you!" Shouted Sasuke manically before looking at the group behind him, locking eyes with Shikamaru. "You'll be next Nara."

'Shit! If I have to fight off both of them...' "Fuck it, Kurama! Give me twenty percent!" Shouted Naruto, confusing all in the clearing. A shockwave exploded outward from the blonde as he was enveloped by a bright orange flame, before he disappeared and reappeared before the retrieval team. "All of you stay back. This isn't a fight that you can help in."

"No! We're going to help you!" Shouted Ino, her pride not accepting that they couldn't help.

"These two are above your league, you will only get in my way." Stated Naruto while he gave a glance to Shikamaru. "If ANY of them come to help, stop them."

"You got it." Stated Shikamaru, getting a shocked look from from most of the retrieval team. "We have no intel on the one holding the claymore and we all saw Sasuke last time he had those marks, the most we could do his hold our own."

"Aww. Dobe cares about his fellow losers. Too bad I'm unstoppable with this new power." Stated Sasuke cockily, his eyes boring into Naruto.

"You are nothing more than a zit on my ass Uchiha." Stated Naruto as he pulled the Kubikiribocho off of his back. Sasuke snarled at the jab. "Don't give me that look, I taught you once before how far beneath me you are."

In an instant, Naruto disappeared at mid to high jonin speed, Sasuke was smashing into a tree that was about fifty feet from where he had started and Suigetsu was cut in half at the waist.

"No... No! I won't be beaten by the Dobe!" Shouted a furious Sasuke, apparently no worse for the ware after being kicked into a tree. Another explosion of malicious chakra erupted from the Uchiha as his skin turned an ash-like color, his hair grew longer and his face adapted a cross like pattern over his nose. Finally, a huge pair of bat like wings grew out of Sasuke's back. "Yes. This is what Orochimaru wanted to have. With this power I will show all of you the true power of the Uchiha!"

* * *

-Unknown Location-

"What a crude boy..." Stated Shinigami, his as face blank as it usually was, though he had a normal voice now, seeing as he had no reason to try and scare this group any longer.

"I just can't understand how one of Mikoto-chan's children is this dark and twisted?" Stated Minato, a disapproving look on his face.

"Well, he is Fugaku-teme's son. Nothing that man has ever done has turned out right." Stated Kushina.

"Be that as I may, this is not the same boy who sacrificed himself for his comrade when they fought Haku. I'd bet that seal that's giving him that power is to blame." Stated Zabuza, gaining a nod from everyone else. "Such a shame. The Uchiha was a powerful clan, yet they seem to have apart fallen just like the Kaguya did."

"They didn't really fall apart." Stated Kushina. "Itachi-kun killed off the clan elders and ninja when they tried to rebel and take over the village."

"What? I thought that he did it to test his skills?" Questioned Zabuza.

"Why would he test his skills on some weak clan like the Uchiha? He was stronger than every one of them, barring Mikoto-chan, by the time he was thirteen." Stated Minato, praising the teen highly.

"You know, the way you talk about him, I'd say that you love him as much as you do Naruto." Stated Zabuza with a taunting smirk. The only reason he dared taunt one of the deadliest man to ever live was that he was already dead.

"Well, that's probably because its true. After all, Itachi couldn't be the son of that weak jutsu thief Fugaku." Stated Kushina, getting everyone in the room to freeze.

Sensing the obvious confusion, Minato decided to fill everyone in. "You see, I've loved Kushina since I was about eight years old, and we've been smitten ever since. However, Kushina wanted to experiment, and the only one she trusted enough to have join in was her best friend... Mikoto Uchiha. At the time, Mikoto was single, and the rest you should be able to figure out yourselves."

Now everyone was speechless. Itachi Uchiha, the clan slayer, was actually Itachi Uchiha-Namikaze, son of the Yellow Flash?

"Hold right the hell up! I've read the bingo book about a million times over, and I can say, without a doubt, that Itachi is a near replica of Fugaku Uchiha of the Konoha Military Police Force!" Stated Zabuza, his mind whirling.

"Well, isn't that proof enough? Sasuke looks a lot more like Mikoto than Fugaku, and if Itachi was both their child, shouldn't he look like both of them?" Stated Shinigami, a grin that could kill a small child across his face. "You used an appearance seal, didn't you?"

"Yes. Had I not, Mikoto would have been banished from the clan and lost her rightful place as clan leader. It was tricky since it had to be undetectable from doujutsu and I had to alter physical appearance in a way that made Itachi look as if he took after both Fugaku and Mikoto. If you look closely, the only trait that Itachi seems to share with Fugaku is his distinct tear troughs around his eyes and that is a product of the seal. However aside from that, Itachi looks more like Mikoto from the basic shape of his face and hair, but his eyes hold a closer resemblance to my own and his hair was originally blonde like my own."

"There was also the issue of keeping Fugaku away from Mikoto during birth so he wouldn't notice Itachi's distinct features at birth and that was done easily enough by having the seal prepped ahead of time for the doctor to apply. This was done by a Shinobi council meeting which Fugaku took part in place of Mikoto. During wartime, as was the case, it wasn't a hard sell and Kushina stayed by Miko-chan's side as Fugaku had no problem with their friendship."

"Although after his whole life with a seal that even he is unaware of, I'd imagine that his physical appearance as it is now would likely not change greatly, even if it was somehow found and removed. The most that he would change would be growing blonde hair and maybe grow an inch or two. Anyway from what I understand, the clan elders took the role of clan leader away when Mikoto retired from active duty to raise Sasuke. So it seems that my helping her was for naught in the end, but given what happened to the clan as a whole I can't say whether I would do the same if given a second chance." Stated Minato.

"That would explain why Itachi is so powerful and smart, yet also explain why this brat turned out so bad. If he was babied because he was Fugaku's actual son, he might have developed this superiority complex." Stated Zabuza, thinking that it couldn't get any more surprising if he tried.

"Fugaku didn't know. Mikoto and he were forcefully married the week after Itachi was conceived by the Uchiha council so that they would have control over Mikoto. The only ones who know are myself, Minato, Mikoto, you two, and the nurse who helped deliver Itachi." Stated Kushina. "Actually, I bet my life that Kakashi-kun knows too. That boy is incredibly gifted."

"So Sarutobi does not know this then?" Questioned Shinigami, a nefarious smile growing on his horrifying visage.

"No, Sarutobi believes that Itachi was simply born two weeks early." Stated Minato. "And now that I think about it, I would tend to guess so as well. Kakashi always did look at Itachi funny whenever they crossed paths, but that might have been due to close proximity to Obito. That seal took a while to take hold. Hell, Itachi had dark blue eyes until he was three."

"So who was this medic that delivered him?" Questioned Zabuza.

"Tsunade Senju."

* * *

-Back to the fight-

Naruto watched with bated breath as Sasuke's curse seal advanced once again. 'Shit, he can use the next level like spider face did. I have to stop him before he gets to the next level like the that spider freak did, or he might use chidori as gloves. I can't use the Hidden Mist jutsu, otherwise Puddle boy over there will just keep getting stronger.'

Naruto began pumping wind chakra into the giant sword, causing it to glow an unearthly green. Sasuke grew confused with the chakra coming off of Naruto's sword. 'What is this? I've never seen green chakra before.'

Suigetsu on the other hand, became desperately frightened. 'That's Chakra Flow! And he's using it with Wind chakra! I need to keep him at a distance. I won't be able to reform properly if he cuts me with that! The only way this could get worse is if he starts using Lightning chakra. Damn that Kabuto!'

Naruto once again disappeared, slashing at the Uchiha, who barely blocked it with one of his wings, though the wing was cut clean through and an inch deep gash made its way to his left shoulder. Naruto followed up with a kick to the other side of his body, which also was blocked by his wing, thought once again, Sasuke heard a bone snap cleanly, resulting in his right wing hanging limply at his side.

Naruto disengaged with Sasuke and once again disappeared from view. Suigetsu, feeling that the blonde was coming for him, sped through hand seals and brought up a wall of water, just in time to deflect a wind enhanced slash from the blonde.

* * *

-Retrieval squad-

The members of the retrieval squad watched in awe as the blonde made short work of the two obviously skilled people he was fighting as if they were nothing more than academy student..

"How is he this strong? I mean, yea, he beat Neji, but still." Stated Choji, his mind unable to find how he went from barely beating Kiba to destroying these two powerful fighters in just under two months.

"Troublesome. He obviously has been hiding his strength. I read the report on the C rank mission that Team 7 all went on. If it wasn't for Naruto, Sasuke would have died and Kakashi might have too." Stated Shikamaru. 'Though to be this strong... I bet he could give Asuma a good workout, if not actually match him...'

"This chakra though, it's the same that he used against Gaara. But it's not fire natured..." Stated Neji. "It's almost like the Raikage's Lightning Armor."

* * *

-Fight-

"Sasuke Uchiha. You are to return to Konoha or be tried for treason." Stated Naruto, now that the Uchiha was on the defense.

"No! It's obvious that they are holding me back! Instead they train you! I've had it with that worthless village. I'm going to kill you and gain the strength I need to kill Itachi!" Shouted Sasuke before he smirked. "Actually... I'll start with them! Fire style! Grand Fireball Jutsu!"

The retrieval group watched in horror as a curse seal fueled fire ball rocketed towards them faster than they could move. Time slowed down as they waited for the end. Their visions became clouded by a wall of water, only to see Naruto to appear in front of them, swinging the mammoth sword like a fan. The force of the swing along with the wind chakra managed to overcome the fireball, canceling each other out.

* * *

-Jiraiya-

'Nice kid, you protected your comrades while attempting to redirect the fireball back at the Uchiha. I think that just about seals the deal on this. He's going to be executed.' Thought Jiraiya. 'Either subdue him or kill him kid.'

'There is going to be a lot for you to work on. If it wasn't for Kyuubi's chakra you would be dead in the water right now... I guess we can work on the dual element training as well as getting his body back up to snuff. Some time for proper healing will need to be in order for that though. I wonder if he can do Chakra Chains like Kushina could?'

* * *

-Retrieval team-

All members tensed as the red headed girl moved to the downed sound four member and picked her up, Neji was about to block her path, when she turned and moved slowly towards the team.

"Can you take us with you to Konoha? We've be trying to get out of Sound for a long time. Please take us with you!" Pleaded the red eyed girl.

"Yeah, Neji, keep an eye on them. The shorter one is in no condition to fight, but the other one is a wild card."

* * *

-Fight-

Naruto suddenly had to block an overhead chop from Suigetsu, who had snuck up on the blonde during his confrontation with Sasuke. Naruto blocked with the wind enhanced blade of the sword, cleaving the claymore in two, leaving only about a foot of the blade still attached to the sword. Using his opponents shock to his advantage, he delivered a Kurama enhanced kick to the chest of Suigetsu, sending the liquid nin flying to the edge of the valley, coming a few feet from falling over the edge.

He had no time to rest as Sasuke made his appearance, his right hand full of lightning and aimed at his chest. To Naruto, he was still moving in slow motion. Naruto caught Sasuke's wrist and snapped it like a twig, forcing the Uchiha to howl in pain before Naruto tossed him in the same direction as Suigetsu.

Naruto was slightly panting as he rested the sword on the ground, the wall of water still surrounding the retrieval group. "For attacking a superior officer with intent to kill, you will die here today."

Naruto's sword pulsed to life in a wave of wind chakra as he picked it up from the ground and held it horizontally in front of him in his right hand, his left flowing through hand seals.

"Fire Transfer..." Naruto breathed out a small flame onto the wind coated blade, causing it to erupt into a raging blue inferno. Naruto held the blade up across his face and swung at the two ninja. "Kenpo! Inferno Wave Slash!"

A wall of blue flames exploded from the blade at the curse marked Uchiha and living puddle swordsman. Neither had time to dodge as the wind enhanced blaze swept through the landscape, so both simply braced themselves, Sasuke's wings covered him completely while Suigetsu summoned a water wall in front of himself, hoping at the very least he would be able to recover, and waited out the inferno.

* * *

-Retrieval group-

"Unbelievable..." Was all Ino could muster at the sight of the powerful attack. She had noticed the water wall that was protecting them start to boil when the sword caught fire, and almost evaporate when her fellow blonde launched the attack, and they were in the opposite direction of the attack. Now everything seemed to freeze in time as they watched the blue flames envelop the mystery swordsman and Sasuke.

"Such power..." Stated Neji as he watched, Byakugan active, as the wall of flames rushed and consumed the two men that Naruto had been fighting. 'What is that red chakra? It's not fire chakra, it's much more dangerous and and unrefined. Like the brown chakra that Gaara of the sand used...'

"Everyone... Get ready to secure what's left of Sasuke." Stated Shikamaru, shocking everyone. Seeing their shock, Shikamaru continued. "Our mission is to retrieve Sasuke, no matter if he's alive or dead. If more people show up... me and Naruto will hold them off while you bring what's left of Sasuke back to the village."

* * *

-Hokage tower-

Hiruzen Sarutobi was worried. Last night, Sasuke Uchiha had left the village. He was no fool, the old man knew the boy left willingly, but that thrice damned council still had a small amount of control over the village and it is best not to set them off.

Sarutobi was taken out of his musings when he heard a faint cracking sound, as if someone had dropped a pot outside his door. Though it was much more horrible than that. The hair stood tall on the back of the old Sarutobi's neck when his eyes panned across his successors picture.

The framed picture of Minato Namikaze had a large crack in its protective glass the spanned the entire image.

'No... There are only three ties that Minato has left in this world...' Sarutobi slowly reached down and pulled open the bottom left drawer in his desk, revealing several framed pictures, the top one having an identical crack in it as the Yondaime's... Naruto.

"ANBU!" Shouted Sarutobi, he waited as two teams of Anbu flooded the room in an instant. "I want one team to go to the border and help out with the securing of Sasuke Uchiha and any other enemies present. Cat, you will lead this mission. The primary objective is to capture the fugitive. The secondary... Naruto is in danger."

Cat, a rather short Anbu with long purple hair and a katana across her back was now frozen. "I will complete this mission. Team R, Move out!"

In a flash if leaves, the team was gone, leaving the second ANBU team standing there.

"What are our orders sir?" Questioned the Tora masked ANBU.

"Tenzo. You are to follow them alone and make absolute sure that Naruto does not lose control. I feel as though he will be forced to use more than he is ready for."

* * *

-In Wave-

For the second time in the last two months, a beautiful redheaded woman stepped off a ship and onto the docks in the port city of Wave.

"Hmm, I haven't been gone more than a couple of months and this place looks even better than when I was here last." Stated the red head with a smile.

"It's thanks to our hero that we can strive once again." Stated a young dock worker, no more than sixteen.

"I'm guessing you mean Naruto." Giggled the redhead.

"Yes ma'am, he did save the country after all." States another, older gentleman, who was dressed rather well and had a canteen of each side of his hip. "My name is Tazuna. Expert Bridge builder and Leader of Wave Country, how may I help you?"

"Well Tazuna, I am Mei Terumi, Elite Jonin of Kirigakure. I'm just passing through on my way to Konoha." Stated Mei, leaving out the fact that she had been there before.

"Elite Jonin huh? Last one of them we had here was Scarecrow... You don't look very Jonin like." Stated Tazuna brashly, showing that he hasn't changed much.

Before Mei even had the chance to get mad, the man that had followed her off the ship spoke up.

"Scarecrow? You mean that Kakashi Hatake was here?" Stated Ao, a former hunter nin and sole holder of the Byakugan in Kiri.

"Yep, he was here with Naruto and those other two brats." Stated Tazuna. "If you're looking for the brat, tell him that Inari wants him to visit soon."

* * *

-Back to the fight-

Everyone watched with baited breath as the raging inferno passed by, revealing the charred wings of Sasuke and a broken sword that had previously been held by Suigetsu, his body gone. Naruto stayed on alert, knowing that his ultimate move hadn't ended the fight, and waited for anything that might happen next.

His worry was proven right when the charcoaled wings of Sasuke broke off and turned to dust, revealing the Uchiha to be slowly turning back into his normal self. Naruto kept his guard up as Sasuke's burn ridden, curse marked form reverted back, revealing a slightly burnt and cut up Sasuke, who's eyes rolled up into the back of his head as he collapsed face first onto the scorched earth.

"Shika, go get him, then all of you need to leave right now!" Commanded Naruto, his chakra cloak still active, confusing the team.

"You heard him. Kiba, Neji, you two are the fastest, clear our route back, Chouji, bind him and pick him up. Me and Ino will cover you." Stated Shikamaru, understanding the gravity of the situation, he then looked at the two redheads. "Follow Neji and kiba."

"What's wrong Shika? Naruto-kun just took out all the enemies?" Stated Ino, still in awe of the powerful sword technique, though she was startled when a large man came down from the trees.

"He's right Gakis, you have to leave right now." Stated Jiraiya in a serious voice from next to Naruto, shocking the retrieval squad with his sudden appearance.

"Now now Jiraiya, we need some witnesses, so the whole world knows of how the Baka of the Sannin fell to the genius." Stated a slippery and dangerously friendly voice. Everyone looked to where both Naruto and Jiraiya had been starring. Across the Valley stood two men, one they all recognized, Kabuto, the other man, the one had black hair, was none other than Orochimaru. "Sensei may have escaped me, but you will not! And it just wouldn't do for you brats to take what is mine."

"You need to leave right now! You have no place in this battle." Commanded Naruto, his eyes never leaving the two in front of him.

"They have no choice..." Stated Orochimaru, grinning as he went through hand seals. "Earth Style. Arena Trap!" As he did this he took note of both his subordinates that were in the jutsu's area of effect and their reaction which was not what he expected.

Suddenly, a large earthen wall erupted around the clearing, trapping the retrieval team and their captives inside, the only out was either over the wall, or past the snake Sannin. "So it seems you have betrayed me Karin? Don't worry, I'll be sure that you see the experiment table soon enough, just like I did with your mother."

"Everyone stay put. He will pick us off if we try to leave, we have to stay here, form up around Sasuke. We can't let him get away." Stated Shikamaru, trying to figure out a plan. Karin seemed to be shaking at Orochimaru's words, but his duty first and foremost was to his team and then the seemingly refugees.

"You must be a Nara... Odd that you would become a Chunin at such a young age." Stated Kabuto with a confident smirk. "But then again, Naruto made Special Jonin at the age of thirteen, so I can say that the standards of leaf nin have dropped considerably."

Naruto knew that jab was completely directed at him, and ignored it completely. "Jiraiya-sensei... Should we bring out some help?"

"I like your style Gaki." Jiraiya smirked. Both leaf nin began going through hand seals. Seeing this, both Orochimaru and Kabuto went through their own.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

* * *

(Boom!)

(Read, Review, do as those in Konoha do!)


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